Republic Rules - The U.S.A. is a great representative republic.

Childhood is great… for kids.
While their bodies are growing, minds developing, and morals being learned children are free to believe in fantasies, stretch their imaginations, play all day and bear few responsibilities. As children grow up, they take on more obligations: school and homework, household chores, and so on.
Good […]

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Without getting into whether the time, money, and expense of the project are justified, the World Values Survey results were just released and indicate WE are pretty happy… 16th out of 80 countries… and are happier now than 25 years ago.  According to the director of the study:
“The country is not only prosperous; it ranks […]

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… the sincerest form of flattery?
NO.
Imitation is the lack of originality!

Would you rather own a classical piece of art or a print of it?
Would you rather introduce a successful new product to market or make a knock-off later?
Would you rather have attended a Beatles concert or watch a tribute band?
Would you rather eat a home-cooked […]

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I hate meetings… most are a waste of time.  Invariably, whatever “meat” in them requires only a fraction of the total time spent preparing, going to, participating in, and returning from them.  Horribly inefficient.  And very few people actually know how to run a meeting well… this should be a skill taught in school.
It seems […]

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Not so many years from now, some say, the oil will stop flowing. When that happens, here are my predictions:
— Saudi Arabia - despite having a commanding role in the world economy for many years, the Saudis failed to leverage their huge financial advantage into an economy that would survive AFTER oil. While […]

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It seems like common sense.  Stating a problem well… and correctly… can have an enormous impact on the solutions pursued and their level of success.  If the problem isn’t defined accurately, the proposed solutions might be appropriate for the definition… but not for the actual problem.  Any given solution might be executed well and perhaps […]

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With all the worry about rapidly rising gas prices, I’ve been thinking about alternative fuels and ways to reduce our dependence on oil (foreign or domestic). Given that we’re a mobile society, it seems like cars (of some sort) are here to stay… but they’ll have to eventually be powered by something other than […]

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We recently discussed rapidly rising gas prices … and, as always, looked at supply and demand, which should give us a clear idea of why prices change. We observed that, since 2003, supply rose a little over 7% and demand increased a little over 8% and PRICE has almost DOUBLED.
At the end of 2007, […]

Read the rest of Why Are Gas Prices So High… So Suddenly? - Part 2

Despite the general increase in U.S. gasoline prices over recent decades, the past few years/months have seen an even higher rate of increase in prices. Why has that happened?
In the broader scope, we could blame a significant reduction in domestic drilling, pumping, and refining of oil. While that might be an adequate initial […]

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Many people argue about how strong or weak the U.S. economy is… and how we rank relative to other countries. While many factors might be considered, IMD Business School of Lausanne, Switzerland, does an annual assessment of 55 countries and uses these criteria in the following categories:

Economic performance
Government efficiency
Business efficiency
Infrastructure

Their comprehensive annual report […]

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