FM newswire for July 6, interesting articles about geopolitics

Today’s links to interesting news and analysis. If you find this useful, please pass it to friends and colleagues.

“Japan Past the Point of No Return“, Vitality Katsenelsen, undated — 15 slides, PDF
“The OECD’s growth prospects and political extremism“, Markus Brückner and Hans Peter Grüner, 16 May 2010
“NOAA-Supported Scientists Predict ‘Larger Than Average’ Gulf Dead Zone“, NOAA, 28 June 2010 — It even grow as large as the record one in 2002.
Grant rediscovered to be a good President — as he was earlier rediscovered to be a good general, Jonathan Bernstein (Asst Prof Political Science, DePauw U), 3 July 2010
“Rise of the four-star deities“, Mehdi Hasan, New Statesman, 5 July 2010
A big story, so of course the news media ignore it: “The BP/Government police state“, Glenn Greenwald, Salon, 5 July 2010
“Thousands Of Soldiers Unfit For War Duty“, Politics Daily (AOL News), 5 July 2010 — “In an unmistakable sign that the Army is struggling with exhaustion after 9 years of fighting, combat commanders whose units are headed to Afghanistan increasingly choose to leave behind soldiers who can no longer perform, putting additional strain on those who still can. The growing pool of “non-deployable” soldiers make up roughly 10% of the 116,423 active-duty soldiers currently in Iraq and Afghanistan.” More about this here.
Yes, shilling for the war is a team effort: “Team Effort“, George Packer, The New Yorker, 5 July 2010 — Despite Packer’s fears, it’s not certain the Taliban could take over Afghanistan, let alone pose “a threat to international security.”
A rebuttal to Packer: “Our Lack of Imagination About What To Do in Afghanistan“, Michael Cohen, Democracy Arsenal, 6 July 2010

Demographics is destiny. Read these to see our future:

“The New Demography of American Motherhood“, Gretchen Livingston and D’Vera Cohn, Pew Research Center, 6 May 2010
“More Women Without Children“, by Gretchen Livingston and D’Vera Cohn, Pew Research Center, 25 June 2010

Today’s recommended website: dshort’s graphs about US debt, taxes, and politics

“Debt-to-GDP, Politics and the Market“, 12 April 2010 — Debt/gdp hit a low during Carter’s term. The rise since then has happened under Republican Presidents (until the great recession Obama inherited)
“Debt-to-GDP, Federal Tax Brackets and Politics“, 15 June 2010 — Tax brackets down, debt up. Surprise!

Quote of the Day

These conservative economists who argue there is little impact on the economy from large fiscal stimulus packages tend to be from the same conservative school as economists who have embraced the efficient markets hypothesis, real business cycle models, and the like. This crowd has been proven massively wrong on almost all counts by the events of the last two years. In fact, I know of no group of distinguished academics in any field in the last hundred years or so who have proven to be so useless and out to lunch as this crowd.
— Frank Veneroso, 24 May 2010 (sent by a reader)

Afterword and contact info