Dear rss free blog,
As Vivian noted in an earlier posting, today is the anniversary of the end of World War I. The US marks it as Veterans’ Day, while other countries commemorate Remembrance Day or Armistice Day. Whatever the name, the point is to remember and honor the sacrifice of those who served in their countries’ armed forces.
Speaking of wars, at least one reader took offense at my posting last week relating my experience in Bosnia. Please note it was not written by Vivian but by Frida Ghitis. I wrote it and take responsibility for that and all my columns.
As a short hand, I wrote that the Bosnian War was stopped by the Americans. A former Canadian soldier did not like that, and I apologize to readers from countries that participated in the Bosnia operation. Indeed, a large number of countries did join in. The point, however, in a piece about the relative influence of American currency and American power, was that Bosnia was not a place where we saw American power decline; quite the opposite. Europe failed to take decisive action and it took a US-led NATO operation followed by US mediation at Dayton to end the war.
Our bailiwick is investing, not history. History can help us identify trends that might guide our investing. One such trend is that, regardless of political and military power, a number of developing countries are growing much faster than the veterans of economic power, Europe and North America. The fact was recognized in a moment that deserved much more attention than it received: the decisions by veteran nations, the world’s largest economies, to shift the center of economic policy coordination from the G-7 to the much larger G-20.
The move was not motivated by altruism, but by the recognition that a small handful of rich countries can no longer exercise the influence they once did.
Enough history. Now to investment news for paying subscribers.
