U.S. power: Down but still unrivaled

BOOK REVIEW

Balance: The Economics of Great Powers from Ancient Rome to Modern America, Authors: Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane.

By Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane – Hard power. Soft power. Smart Power. Superpower. This is the language of foreign affairs, full of meaning but empty of measurement. Vagueness is, of course, purposeful in the hands of skilled diplomats and politicians, but it can signal shallowness, ignorance or worse. Lacking clear metrics for power, the U.S. national security establishment speculates about possible rivals while being led astray by trendy catchphrases.

The United States itself has a larger GDP and higher productivity than 10 years ago, but its long-term growth rate has slowed by half. That’s a reflection of internal imbalance – budget deficits, heavy taxes that hinder incentives to work and innovate, unfunded entitlements and more.

Existential threats hide in plain sight. If the United States wants to be a superpower for another century, it needs to focus on the barriers to economic growth within — not phantoms abroad. more> http://tinyurl.com/q8yjmvl

Here comes Sequester: Part 2

By Erik Wasson – The second year of the 2011 Budget Control Act was supposed to be easier.

From 2014 on, the act imposed spending ceilings on the government that were meant to force appropriators to make considered decisions on spending cuts instead of across-the-board slashing.

But it appears likely that Congress will fail to agree to specific cuts, and will punt the decisions to agencies. more> http://tinyurl.com/nbmlbua

Related>

• Will Business Step In to End a Sequester-Driven Research Funding Gap? Larry Greenemeier, Scientific American/Yahoo!

Bernanke’s dangerous optimism

By James Saft – “Both humanity’s capacity to innovate and the incentives to innovate are greater today than at any other time in history,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said.

The depressing thing about the technological revolution is that it has coincided with a period in which both income growth and meaningful employment have been increasingly difficult for the average U.S. household to obtain. Technology seems to have become rather better at efficiency than job creation, at least for those with modest skills. At the same time, in helping to drive down prices it has set the stage for overly loose monetary policy leading to destructive booms and busts. more> http://tinyurl.com/lj9dm93

Embedded education

By Colin Walls – How do you acquire the specialist skills needed to develop software for embedded systems?

Learning at college may be difficult, so many engineers pick up the skills on the job, starting with an electronics or computer science background. An intelligent engineer can learn a lot from more experienced colleagues. Indeed this is largely how my own career started and I have mentored quite a few younger guys who had come out of college with few clues. more> http://tinyurl.com/amyc6ft

Related>

• Renesas Electronics America, Micrium and IAR Systems Bring Expanded RTOS and Middleware Bundle to Embedded Developers on IAR Systems Tools Platform, BusinessWire/Yahoo! News

Vodafone $100 Billion Stirs Payout, Deal Dreams: Real M&A

By Amy Thomson – Vodafone Group Plc (VOD)’s investors have ideas for the $100 billion or more that the company stands to pocket for its stake in Verizon Wireless: first, a fat dividend — then, deals.

After Vodafone lost more than half its value since Verizon Wireless began offering mobile services in 2000, shareholders such as Ignis Asset Management say Vodafone’s priority should be to return a large amount to investors. Even if Vodafone gave stockowners half of the at least $100 billion in proceeds, the carrier still will be left with $62 billion, including current cash. That would be enough firepower to buy Germany’s largest cable operator Kabel Deutschland Holding AG (KD8) and John Malone’s Liberty Global Inc. (LBTYA), KBC Asset Management said. more> http://tinyurl.com/q3ty8bz

Related>

• Vodafone’s decision time over US partner Verizon, Christopher Williams, telegraph.co.uk
• Vodafone keeps Verizon payout to make up for European slump, Kate Holton and Paul Sandle, Reuters