New Wave of Deft Robots Is Changing Global Industry – NYTimes.com

The cost of automated assembly lines is falling and at some point will become cheaper than their labor-intensive equivalent. The result could be a tectonic shift in manufacturing but where will the redundant assembly workers find jobs? JOHN MARKOFF of the NYTimes writes:

The falling costs and growing sophistication of robots have touched off a renewed debate among economists and technologists over how quickly jobs will be lost. This year, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, made the case for a rapid transformation. “The pace and scale of this encroachment into human skills is relatively recent and has profound economic implications,” they wrote in their book, “Race Against the Machine.”

In their minds, the advent of low-cost automation foretells changes on the scale of the revolution in agricultural technology over the last century, when farming employment in the United States fell from 40 percent of the work force to about 2 percent today.

via New Wave of Deft Robots Is Changing Global Industry – NYTimes.com.

Which Country Has the Best Government? – SPIEGEL ONLINE

The Craft of Ruling: Which Country Has the Best Government?
By Bernhard Zand

American political scientist Charles Kupchans claims that there is a “mismatch between the growing demand for good governance and its shrinking supply,” putting Western powers under pressure. He says it’s no coincidence that the political systems in the US, Europe and Japan are all discovering their limits almost simultaneously. Their traditional tools, such as their currency control instruments, have repeatedly proven to be powerless when faced with the sheer might of global financial groups. Likewise, democratic governments, which rely on the approval of their electorate, “have proved far better at distributing benefits than at apportioning sacrifice.” Worse still, many likeminded Western democracies no longer see eye-to-eye on how to solve global problems, from climate change to the isolation of Iran.

via Good Governance Series: Which Goverment Is Best – SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Putin's Russia Is Becoming a Flawless Dictatorship – SPIEGEL ONLINE

The Path to Tyranny: Putin’s Russia Is Becoming a Flawless Dictatorship
By Georg Diez, Walter Mayr and Matthias Schepp:

Medvedev’s essay “Forward, Russia,” published in September 2009, had triggered hopes of a freer Russia within the well-educated urban middle class. Putin’s successor had created an atmosphere in which the middle class had become active, recognizing that a different, modern Russia could be possible. This political thaw had since been recognized as a mistake, says Moscow political scientist Vitaly Ivanov. Putin’s team responded to Medvedev’s stated principle that freedom is always preferable to the lack of freedom with the conviction that order is always better than disorder.

via SPIEGEL Cover Story on Pussy Riot Trial and Putin – SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Meltdown: History of the Global Financial Collapse 2010 | Part 4

Aftermath of the GFC.
http://youtu.be/h3VgY1_PzUs

Meltdown: History of the Global Financial Collapse 2010 | Part 3

Collapse of the Icelandic government, unemployment and homelessness rises, street protests and industrial action.
http://youtu.be/JB4wefzZLNc

Meltdown: History of the Global Financial Collapse 2010 | Part 2

How one man almost brought down the world financial system.
http://youtu.be/VBmOEI7Ob9M

Meltdown: History of the Global Financial Collapse 2010 | Part 1

De-regulation of financial markets came about as a result of competition between London and New York to be a global financial center.
http://youtu.be/T3CDGh4cXU0

The Ascent of Money: Niall Ferguson | Episode 4

Final episode — PLANET FINANCE — of a four-part series THE ASCENT OF MONEY. Economist and historian Niall Ferguson documents the evolution of money and banking through the ages.

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The Ascent of Money: Niall Ferguson | Episode 3

Third episode — RISKY BUSINESS — of a four-part series THE ASCENT OF MONEY. Economist and historian Niall Ferguson documents the evolution of money and banking through the ages.

Part 1:

http://youtu.be/NXe2B9icKQ0

Part 2:

http://youtu.be/095xF7uwYyE

Part 3:

http://youtu.be/-lAITBURfXQ

Part 4:

http://youtu.be/zfJPvvj5R2M

The Ascent of Money: Niall Ferguson | Episode 2

Second episode — BONDS OF WAR — of a four-part series THE ASCENT OF MONEY. Economist and historian Niall Ferguson documents the evolution of money and banking through the ages.

http://youtu.be/OND8fI15AYU