Let’s not pretend the last 8 years were capitalism. Capitalism is pro-business, pro-middle class.

COMMENT, Sydney — The NSW Government of Carr-Iemma-Rees has ended.
Nobody has admitted it yet. The decline trend is well in its death spiral, the day Iemma resigned. There is no rebirth without change.
“The Governor may…..remove from his office, or suspend from the exercise of the same, any person exercising any office, or place, in the State…”
– The Royal Instructions, Clause 10
NSW, Doomed.
NSW politicians have destroyed Australia’s most prosperous …

COMMENT, USA –Few people understand how the economic paradigm has shifted.
2thinknow do.
We predicted it would shift, and that their would be an economic crisis. Correctly. Back in October 2007, before others.
If you would like to see what it all means, including Obama’s election, see these slides on slideshare.
Opportunity for Local Innovation.
There are a lot of economic opportunities out there, but bright minds need opportunity.
Creativity needs its voice. Anyway, look at the slides.
I hope they help you in your quest to profit in the Bear Market.
Thanks to SlideShare for spreading this …

COMMENT, Australia — Nascent trends show that the National (or Country) Party are just about to turn a corner.
Recently the National Party were kingmakers in West Australia State elections.
Now it looks like the National Party may win in the New Zealand elections.
Barnaby’s Voice.
An independent thinker, one of the few who stood up to John Howard, Barnaby Joyce has the leadership & charisma to be a national leader. In 8-12 years.
It may be too soon, and it may not eventuate, but this is an interesting thought.
Trends for the National Party.
Food supply …

ANALYSIS, USA — It’s all over!
Obama has won the US Presidency with a probable popular vote of up to 5%.

Political Winds. Economic Trends.
The key significance of Obama, is a little-noticed trend.
Economic local-ism.
Grass-roots.
Ground-up.
In Talbott’s book, Obamanomics, he refers to Obama’s ideas “bottom-up economics”.
Read it: Obamanomics: How Bottom-Up Economic Prosperity Will Replace Trickle-Down Economics
Economics is trend # 1.
Economics has changed.
With the surge of China, Economic Crisis &  under-reported power of Europe, economic intervention is back. Economic regulation is back.
The trends have shifted at the infancy stage, and represent a paradigm shift. Unimaginable …

Voting machines are unreliable across the United States. How can that be in a major democracy?

ANALYSIS, USA — Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has proven to be a visionary leader of California.
Schwarzenegger, a Republican, married to a Kennedy Democrat, will become the nations most senior Republican, as the party moves back to the centre.
There’s an interesting video of Governor Schwarzenegger’s idea for a “Bipartisan Commission Will Address Chronic Budget Problems”. Read the release here.
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Schwarzenegger Action, Ideas.
Interestingly, Obama winning means Schwarzenegger will be the symbolic leader. Vindicated in opposition to Bush on many policies. Bi-partisan. Moderate. Results-driven. Environmentally-focussed. New ideas.
A lot of power …

ANALYSIS – According to the Polls, Obama should win the US election only a couple of days away.
We hope this time the result is not tangled up in electoral court-cases or misanthropic journalism, as was the case in Gore v Bush.
We’ll look now at how trends support Obama.
Trends Support Obama.
Australia’s Centre Left.
The fortune of leaders are often tied to the same trends in English-speaking countries. Reagan-Thatcher. Clinton-Blair. Bush-Howard.
Australia’s Prime Minister Rudd represents generational change, Obama does too.
2thinknow accurately predicted the result of the Rudd election, and the margin within 1%, …

SLIDES, USA — This slideshow that makes a pithy 7-slide case for Obama.
And if you haven’t tried out SlideShare, click thru & try it out. SlideShare is great for communicating.
Trends.
Trends support change, and a return to a US presidency where the president knows how to do his job.
Whether Obama or McCain, both are fundamentally competent politicians. Paul Daley, sets out the case for change (return to normalcy, decency & competence) in The Age here.
The current US administration deepened the current economic crisis & are now fighting in a war on …

ANALYSIS, USA — According to The Age newspaper online:
“The economy suffered its biggest decline since 2001 in the third quarter, ushering in what may be the worst recession in a quarter-century … Gross domestic product contracted at a 0.3% pace from July to September, according to a Commerce Department report.
“The crisis really kicked up in late September,” Ethan Harris, co-head of US economic research at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “We’re going to be looking at a very unfriendly GDP number in the …

COMMENT, Melbourne — John Brumby’s Victorian government has tabled over 200 reports in one day according to The Age.
>  Avalanche of reports ‘a joke’
> 300 reports in 24 hours
The back-story is that Brumby complained about Kennett’s lack of transparency. And now he ‘one-ups’ Kennett.
Something to Hide?
Sure. Grand Prix losses. Failed environmental targets. Massive Treasury losses.
And bear in mind these reports are retrospective.
Immediately following a boom, such mediocre results indicate incompetence and a lack of management.
I’ve worked on government & corporate financial reports, so they’ll bury all the bad news in …

Africa is often neglected in terms of innovation, but Africa needs a plan for innovation. A 100 year plan…

COMMENT, China — Chinese leadership in Beijing must be wishing the Olympics would come around soon.
The significance of these 8 good news stories, is that the Beijing government often signals it’s shift in strategic thinking, and engagement, by actions rather than rhetoric.

China’s actions indicate some possibly shift in policies, and increasing inclination in Beijing top openness.
Few understand, the significance of these events, except perhaps Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and some European Union heavyweights.
Lucky 8
Here are 8 (8 is, of course, lucky in China), mostly positive news stories (including one …

COMMENT, Cuba — So we know Fidel Castro, leader of Cuba, is nearly a memory.
Finally the new leader, albeit his brother Raul, has taken some steps to catch Cuba up with the rest of the world. Sure these are basic steps, and sure there are more ways to go.

But in reality, there has been movement from what many in US politics regard as a recalcitrant regime. And where’s there’s movement there is possibility.
Here’s top 7 notable changes since Raul Castro, took over:
7. Cuba is seeking foreign investment in energy …

COMMENT, EU, USA — Most of the focus in the recent crisis has been on the USA and Federal Reserve.
But the banking crisis is far broader than the USA. The German economy in Europe is in a few key ways closest to the US model. And German investment banks are close to collapse, according to De Spiegel.
“(Dusseldorf bank) IKB was on the verge of bankruptcy, with its supposed wonderful US investments worth little more than the paper it was printed on.”
De Spiegel International, 20th February 2008

German bank CEOs are not …

ANALYSIS, USA — Wealthy white people with academic economic dogma are a plague on all our wallets, let alone houses.

The economics brains trust of our last 8 years or so of US (and British & Australian) economic policy have been a few rich white guys, right-wing academic economists from big universities like Harvard. These folks theories are to blame for severity of the coming US recession.
Why?
Most universities (like Harvard) have a fair mix of dissent; but the current US administration selected all economists (and think-tanks) with far-Right free market views.
Clinton, …

COMMENT, Melbourne — Let’s face it privatized public transport has failed.
It’s not the same elsewhere in the world — where Public Transport is clean, reliable and safe.

Public transport succeeds in similar towns in Germany.
But not in Australia. Public transport can work, but does not now work in Melbourne & Victoria. There are issues in the approach of the State Government, private contractors and the various ideologically-driven desperadoes on this issue.
The biggest issue is the ideological gunfight set-up by far-Right gunslingers like Alan Moran, of the disingenuously-titled ‘Institute for Public Affairs’.
And …

COMMENT, USA, UK, Australasia– Why does the West play up the gender divide?
We receive input from a variety of professional bodies. One of the has become not the professional peak body it’s supposed to be, but the pretend Institute of Gender Issues.
Fully 70% of their recent industry publication is focussed on women’s issues.
It’s too much.
Gender Divide is damaging relationships
The only mission of this industry body is to focus on promoting it’s own agenda of female superiority. It only interviews women and features only business women in most of it’s publications …

COMMENT, Saudi Arabia — Add to the long list of things Saudi women cannot do.

Buy Starbucks with a man.
On that list you could add vote.
Drive a car.
Often, being seen with a man is enough for a woman to be punished.
In this case, a woman was punished for having a coffee at Starbucks in Saudi’s capital, Riyadh, with a male work colleague.
Punished?
Hand-cuffed. Lead away. Strip search. Lock-up. Interrogation.
Who does this if found guilty of un-islamic conduct punishment is barbaric.
We don’t want to westernise Saudi Arabia. I couldn’t care if they …

Rudd’s 2020 summit is a good idea, but will it fulfil its promise?