The knowledge, wealth, and development gaps among nations is reducing and the reign of superpowers is shortening. Just look at the history of the Roman, Islamic, Russian and British empires, the newer the power the shorter the reign. In the economic and business worlds the same power cycles apply. Ford, IBM, Nokia and other companies all lost their leadership position to newer companies.

Med Jones

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In the Internet age, information is cheap. Education is expensive.

Med Jones

The leadership team is the most important asset of the company and can be its worst liability

Med Jones

Countries that quit producing real products, spend more than they produce, lag in education, burden their middle class with higher taxes, and continue to import billions from other countries, bail out failed businesses and reward bad behavior instead of investing in good businesses, will eventually lose their leadership and wealth

Med Jones

Countries that try to spread their ideologies by force, be it religion, socialism, capitalism, democracy or something else, will be overwhelmed by the human and economic cost of conflicts. Those countries will lag behind other countries that are focusing on developing their economies and advancing their interests via global partnerships and trade. With the new global knowledge and global competition, if you take your eye off the economic ball someone else will pick it up.

Med Jones

Gold belongs with a class of speculative investments and should be kept to a minimum in long-term investment portfolios. This statement is valid until the world adopts gold as the main component of a new international currency.

Med Jones

In the age of knowledge and global socioeconomic exchange, goodwill and trade relations are far important to national prosperity and stability than land or military power. Socioeconomic systems that are built on exclusive ideologies, religious or ethnic purities are breeding grounds for extremism and will eventually lead to civil and international conflicts. Those countries must change or fail.

Med Jones

The four columns of success are motivation, education, actions and relations

Med Jones

History teaches us that people from different religions and ethnic groups can be united around one economic goal; equality and prosperity for all. We saw that in the rise of the communist USSR. When the economic policies of the USSR failed, ethnic and national divisions took the forefront and the USSR's was dissolved. That could happen to the US if we are hit by hyperinflation or currency collapse. No country is above the socioeconomic laws, US included.

Med Jones

Over the long term, if government revenues continue to be more than expenditures (surplus), then the economic health of the country is good, because the government can afford to invest in development projects such as research and development, education and infrastructure. With more income, the government can also afford to lower taxes, which increase corporate profits and attracts more foreign investors, resulting in more economic activities, creating more jobs and enlarging the consumer spending and government revenues overall despite income tax cuts. It is what I call a virtuous economic cycle.

Med Jones

In US we had our share of civil conflicts driven by economic forces. The European immigrants brought slaves from Africa to use them as cheap labor for farming their lands. The color of the skin is only a rationalization for the continuation of the slavery system. All the segregation and discrimination rules against the blacks at that time were made to preserve the existing economic system and the interest of its beneficiaries. Though the American civil war was attributed to states and civil rights, the driving forces behind the war was the conflict of economic interests.

Med Jones

Nothing is worth your peace of mind, not even your own ego.

Med Jones

Countries that have strong pre-crisis macroeconomic metrics, rich natural resources and export-based industries have stronger recovery prospects from economic crisis.

Med Jones

Without peaceful international relations, there could be no economic stability and prosperity. On the political front, world leaders and UN veto-holding members could reset their foreign policies and stop burdening their economies and their people with international conflicts. The UN international courts of justice could be responsible for resolving international conflicts. The implementation of this solution requires a strong global leadership vision and action. Unfortunately the US leadership is limited by many conflicting private interest groups and is buried in domestic politics, ideological conflicts, and security issues. It is also unlikely that the global powers will let go of their power voluntarily and the situation will not get better before it gets worse.

Med Jones

Knowledge networks will revolutionize the global economy. They will change the way we think, learn and work. The prosperity of a nation and its people will be determined to a large degree by how well they can leverage the global knowledge networks to develop their resources, collaborate, innovate and market their products and services.

Med Jones

The socioeconomic well-being theory explains that when the members of a sociopolitical system share the same economic interests and the existing system produces enough economic opportunities to meet the needs of the members, they are likely to tolerate existing differences and work together towards shared benefits. On the other hand, when the system fails to produce enough economic opportunities over a long period of time, the members of the system are likely to compete more aggressively for existing resources, causing divisions among the members to grow stronger. The degree of social cohesiveness will diminish and divisions could take different forms such as ethnic, religious and geographic conflicts and at times class warfare or civil wars. If not managed properly, such sociopolitical systems can become dysfunctional. If the dysfunction is left untreated, at a certain point it will take more energy to fix the system than to let it collapse.

Med Jones

Contrary to popular belief, transformation cannot be based on a single event, advice, book, or seminar. These things may lead to a new insight or even a temporary change, however, real transformation requires the formation of new thinking patterns and behavioral habits. Transformation requires consistent action and time to reinforce new learned values and drop old ones. Once the process of transformation is completed, it will change who you are, your life and the lives of the people around you.

Med Jones

Countries that have strong pre-crisis macroeconomic metrics, rich natural resources and export-based industries have stronger recovery prospects. Strong budgets allow the government to stimulate the economy with less debt burden. Exports play a significant role in supporting a stable interest rate and ex-change rates thus renewing investors confidence and recovery.

Med Jones

The main difference in the speed of recovery between Argentina in post-2001 and Thailand in post-1997 crises is the exports. Fiscal discipline is necessary but not sufficient without export-driven economic growth. Too much debt can result in prolonged stagnation similar to the Japanese lost-decade of 1990s. With inflation risk on the rise, we could see more socioeconomic troubles and political unrest in economies with thin middle class. 2011-2012 will be challenging for many policy makers.

Med Jones

Throughout the history, national and international conflicts can be traced to economic reasons, they can be disguised under different propaganda and may take different forms as conflicts evolve, but these forms are the effect not the cause.

Med Jones

Over the long term, if government revenues continue to be more than expenditures (surplus), then the economic health of the country improves, because the government can afford to invest in development projects such as research and development, education and infrastructure. With more income, the government can also afford to lower taxes, which increases corporate profits and attracts more foreign investors, resulting in more economic activities, creating more jobs and enlarging consumer spending and government revenues despite income tax cuts. It is what I call a virtuous economic cycle.

Med Jones