The Democratic Race in Seven Minutes (Courtesy: SlateV)

Hegemonic Stability Theory - Some trends

For the uninitiated, please go ahead and google the first part of the subject line - "Hegemonic Stability Theory". You'll find a few informative web sites. If you really want to know more, your best bet is to go to your local library or a bookstore and pick up a book on International Political Economy (IPE). Hegemonic Stability is a controversial theory in the field of IPE. One view suggests that when there is a rise of a hegemon or superpower, the world economy tends to grow and prosper, because the hegemon is willing to incur costs of enforcing free trade, sound money, peace and security to support its own interests. Of course, there are other perspectives.

Today, a couple decades after the Cold War, the United States is undoubtedly the hegemon. Great Britain used to be several decades ago, and Spain and Portugal way before that. One aspect of the theory states that the hegemon declines over time and another takes its place. The declining hegemon is the topic I would like to share my thoughts on.

We've had several crises in the United States. The one we are facing right now seems to be quite formidable. Can we recover from it? Or are we evidencing the hegemon in decline? Is the United States giving up its hegemonic position? I have seen coverage in the media which may lead you to believe that there is a shifting trend. I am listing a few sources below. You decide:

Fareed Zakaria's book: The Post-American World


Kishore Mahbubani's article:

Europe is a geopolitical dwarf - Upload a doc

Read this doc on Scribd: Europe is a geopolitical dwarf

Charlie Rose interviews Parag Khanna:

Two worlds, interesting parallels

I am fascinated by everything about automobiles. My brief stint at an
automobile manufacturing company in India gave me good exposure to
various aspects of the business. So when I saw an article entitled
"born to be fuel-efficient" in the Personal Journal section of the
Wall Street Journal (May 21) it caught my fancy. I began to read with
great interest the rise of scooter use in the United States.

You know, when I came to the U.S. from India in the early 90s I used
to wonder why people didn't care for fuel efficiency. Well, gasoline
prices were below a $1 a gallon. Nobody cared about the cost of
jumping in the car and driving 50 miles. At the same time, in India
for all scooter and motorcycle manufacturers "fuel efficiency" was
front and center in their advertising campaigns. One motorcycle
campaign I remember was launched by Hero Honda, it said their bike was
so fuel efficient that customers could fill it (fuel tank), shut it,
and forget it. I believe Indians were paying close to $4 per gallon
back then. The rise of gasoline prices presents a similar dynamic in
the U.S. marketplace. American customers are paying attention to fuel
economy. Scooter use is expected to go up. Scooters cost less, they
are cheaper to insure, and way more fuel efficient than sedans (almost
two and half times better). In major cities parking costs may be
avoided as well. Go to NY Scooter Club for information.
Although, I have to say I would be concerned about safety driving on
American roads. The trend in reversing in India. More people will
start buying cheap cars a la Tata Nano instead of scooters or
motorcycles. . They don't have great roads for cars, but that is
changing. In my opinion, safety is an issue.

There is an opportunity for America and India have a lot to learn from
each other.

Microhoo, Yasoft or Microho :-)

The saga of Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo! continues. So MSFT wants to now acquire Yahoo! but not all of Yahoo! All right, what is Microho going to look like then? We know it is aimed at competing against Google in online advertising. However, Yahoo set up a partnership (they said it was experimental at first) with Google. Now MSFT is talking about steering more traffic to its own web sites. Activist investor Carl Icahn is pushing Yahoo to come to the table. Are these guys seeing value where none exists? History has proven great visionaries wrong. Remember AOL Time Warner? I am not very optimistic. Not very different from the Democratic Presidential nomination process. While Obama (YHOO) and Hillary (MSFT) fight, McCain (GOOG) is merrily solidifying his position.

GE Appliances Unit Spinoff

What General Electric is doing with their GE Appliances spinoff adds a new piece to the unfolding new business landscape. We are seeing long-lasting brands (another example, Wrigley) disappearing from tomorrow's business horizon. The media is talking about the Haier Group from China being one of the buyers. If this does happen, then it will contribute to the growing trend of traditionally Western-owned companies transferring ownership to an emerging area company (other examples, Land Rover/Jaguar to Tata).

GE Appliances Unit Spinoff - Upload a doc

Read this doc on Scribd: GE Appliances Unit Spinoff

Scribd

If you have not discovered Scribd yet, you must go to their website at http://www.scribd.com

As an example, go to my BI Blog to check out the iPaper of one of my Scribd documents. They have a pretty ambitious goal of converting all documents to electrons. In fact, if you look around on their website they have instructions for you to send paper form documents which they will convert to online documents for FREE. How cool is that?

Economist - Audio and Video Updates

The Economist does a great job of covering business, polictics, science/technology and international issues on their audio/video section of their web site. Check out the following:

Rick Karr on Government Secrecy

From Ruth: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03142008/watch3.html

Lou Dobbs vs. THE CFR - Rockefeller and Cheney Featured

From Ruth:

Discussions with a colleague

My colleague at work, I will just use her first name - Ruth, has unique perspectives on life. She has been sharing her perspectives with me. With her 20+ years background in Peace Corps and rehabilitating refugees from various parts of the world she has developed a world view which is very unique. I do not always agree with her. Sometimes, I find her statements very provocative. But she substantiates her statements with examples. I will be sharing her thoughts with you from time to time. I hope it encourages you to think and if you would like to debate with her, please post your comments on this blog. I'm sure she will be thrilled to make you see her viewpoint!

Here is a sampler of web sites she has shared with me so far:

Prison Planet
Zeitgeist Video

More to come...