As the World Turns ....

No, have not been watching soap operas but have, in the quiet of this day, found myself thinking deeply about many things. Some of the news bullets that have caught my attention thus as mental fuel for my mind's washing machine:

• Student loan bankruptcies are highest in the history of the US
• Italy economy growing on China's indication of purchasing Italy debt / bonds
• The Republican Tea Party debates actually left me feeling upbeat
• Watching our President beat the same out of tune drum in Ohio three times today already
• People in Canton per the obituaries are dying younger generally
• Highest number of people below the US poverty level in US history now
• Newt, like him or not, is a brilliant man of great depth and articulation (so shoot me)
• College MBA enrollments highest in history due to poor economy; not better education
• the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan under major artillery / ground attack
• Just read a university academic study group summary indicating most professors pay no attention to student evaluations of the class and the professor
• I think this list is long enough but there are many more but ...

So given those points above as a short list, my mind immediately goes to seeking the core, the nuggets of connectivity to answer the question as to what does it all mean and I realize that the complexity around the pathway of understand is strewn with mines and booby traps.  However, me being me, I have some thoughts I wish to share so hang on!

Our world is a very different, more volatile, more interconnected and more dangerous world than at any time in the last two generations I know of for I have lived through both of those.  My father fought in WWII and what I have learned from him and life and research is that there was a defined, uniformed enemy.  That may sound simple but it is very important to grasp the implication of that reality.  In today battlefronts, the lines described in the bullets above, there is no defined, uniformed enemy thus it is very hard to assess just who, what, when, where and how and not to mention why an individual or a business can / should marshal their forces to combat the cancer of uncompetitiveness. 

I used to hear, and believe, everybody needs and enemy!  Let that sink in. If you have an adversary then you know which direction the acrimony, the frustration and the pain is coming but less the enemy, the tracers can and do come from the 360 firing range.  That is precisely where we are; in the middle of that virtual 360 firing range and not sure which direction to aim our weapons and which quadrants to call fire into thus never ending frustration and growing angst and fear.  I see this first hand in the interface with my students.  The mountain of student loan debt is, well, staggering and I see nothing to stem its growth and implication.

Just yesterday I have a student, excellent young man, pose an unanswerable question to me which put simply, "what do African Americans in NE Ohio find it nearly impossible to get a break in securing solid, well paying work ..."  That was a profound, electrifying question that has burned into my wiring pretty deeply for it is a societal question thus no easy answer but still the question is on the table.

As I run the bulleted list through my software, I see trends ... China is investing in debt ridden locations around the world and hoarding commodities thus driving the prices for other nations higher.  I do not believe we see a real exit from Afghanistan nor Iraq and I believe the monarchies of the Middle East will fall in bloody coups but will be replaced with even more Sharia law-based military dictatorships thus exacerbating an already volatile global reality.  My eyes rarely leave the price of gold for it is an excellent global indicator of instability and therefore it continues to edge toward the $2,000 per ounce level with predictions for $2,500. Crude oil is easing back toward $100 per barrel and all that entails translating to $4 per gallon gasoline; remember how good that feels?!?!?!

I will close but stating that the political rancor and pugnacious rhetoric is not helping anyone nor anything.  The Super Debt Commission will be probably the great negative legacy Mr. Obama shall have laid and the cut triggers will add to the points I make above. So does it get better before it gets worse? Me thinks the worse is yet to come, frankly.  Watching Europe implode is frightening and has tremendous both epic and Biblical implication when viewing Europe through the lens of the old Holy Roman Empire!  Asia is moving headlong into the driver's seat for this new century but I see still more push back and lack of acceptance of that by our US and European leaders for Asia is the globe's greatest opportunity ahead I believe.

Stay focused, Stay tuned, Stay educated, Seek to understand, Connect the dots ... see why I love teaching so much!!! the fields are so fertile and I think this semester is going to be amazing!