Regrettably, the tools required to sustain all of these efforts are in jeopardy. The collective decisions by Congress and both Democratic and Republican Presidents over the past 15 years have left the U.S. military using equipment that is extremely old and, in many cases, outdated.
While compensation for military personnel continues to rise necessarily and deservedly, [...]

go to permalink....

The first time I spoke with real estate entrepreneur Andy Miller was in late 2007, when I asked him to serve on the faculty of a Casey Research Summit. As John Mauldin, a former faculty member himself, knows, we’re very selective with our speakers. And there was no one in the nation I wanted more [...]

go to permalink....

A shocking report from Brookings exposes just how massive America’s poverty problem is. While substantial reductions in poverty were made during the 1990’s, America’s poor have been rocked by the dual economic downturnssince 2000.
The result is that poverty grew at twice the rate of U.S. population growth from 2000 – 2008, and now encompasses 39.1 [...]

go to permalink....

China and the U.S. share two central traits: a financial-command-economy and an addiction to cheap, easy money to prop up bubbles that serve the status quo.
Despite the many obvious differences between the Chinese and American systems of governance and “capitalism,” there are two key similarities. We might phrase this thusly: China’s leadership has empowered [...]

go to permalink....

The story told by the articles and headlines in a single day’s issue of the Financial Times reflects a deeper reality, one that illustrates the great divide in the world today. The Asian countries, led by China, are reaching world power status on the basis of their massive domestic and foreign investments in manufacturing, transportation, [...]

go to permalink....

You know American workers are in bad shape when a low-paying, no-benefits job is considered a sweet deal. Their situation isn’t likely to improve soon; some economists predict it will be years, not months, before employees regain any semblance of bargaining power. That’s because this recession’s unusual ferocity has accelerated trends—including offshoring, automation, the decline [...]

go to permalink....

In this week’s issue of Defense News , Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, warns, “Stagnation threatens U.S. arms superiority.” After noting recent tests by Russia and China of new nuclear-armed missiles, Berman writes,

Indeed, practically every declared nuclear weapon state is engaged in a serious modernization of its strategic arsenal. [...]

go to permalink....

For as long as many can remember, the United States has been the country with money, influence, and power. But all that is changing, write Brad DeLong and Stephen Cohen in their new book, The End of Influence.
…
But the United States is losing the money. America is now massively in debt to foreigners and will [...]

go to permalink....

Russia and the United States plan unprecedented cuts to their Cold War arsenals of nuclear weapons under a new arms reduction deal, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
“The treaty will stipulate a radical and unprecedented reduction in strategic offensive weapons,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by the state-owned [...]

go to permalink....

Years of strategic missteps in oceans policy, naval strategy and a force structure in decline set the stage for U.S. defeat at sea in 2015. After decades of double-digit budget increases, the People’s Liberation Army (Navy) was operating some of the most impressive systems in the world, including a medium-range ballistic missile that could hit [...]

go to permalink....