The economy has clearly become the primary subject today in America.  It has become so not only because of all the issues discussed in the prior column, but also because it has also become the number one issue for voters in this significant election year.

In the “Forecast for 2008” column on January 9^th of this year I wrote:

“The U.S. Economy will not go into a recession as it has been traditionally defined.  There will be a bumpy ride, particularly in the first six months of the year. The traditional conversation will be an either/or discussion:  will there be a recession …

The time between this column and the last one posted here is the longest time between columns in the more than two year life of this blog. The reason is very simple. My father-in-law died a week ago and I have been mourning the passing of not only a man I loved, but an American Hero.

For those of you who come here for future oriented commentary on what is going on in the world, this will be a departure. However as we are now entering a new age that seems filled with upheaval and yet provides an opportunity for human …

The last 50 years of humanity’s mindless consumption of fossil fuels has helped accelerate global warming. The total lack of a cohesive energy policy and program in America has given us $4 a gallon gasoline with $5 and $6 a gallon a practical certainty. There are millions of new riders on our mass transit systems at a time when many of these systems are in crumbling decline due to decades of neglect and total lack of strategic initiatives. Solar and wind power are extremely exciting and coming on line quickly. Globally, and nationally we have backed ourselves into an energy …

We have now entered the Shift Age, the global stage of humanity’s evolutionary journey.  What this means is that the U.S. must redefine itself within this new global age.  During the second half of the 20th century, the U.S. was a super power, the super power that lead the Western bloc of nations in contrast to the Soviet Union which was the other super power that lead the Eastern bloc.  Unfortunately, when the Soviet Union crumbled in the early 1990s the U.S. simply accepted victory and did not spend time reflecting what this meant.