Some Russians in folk costumes at a London 2007 festival. | Wikimedia Commons

By Mark Jurkevich

As widely reported last week, the U.S. has fallen out of the Top 10 countries on the Legatum Institute’s Annual Prosperity Index.

Scandinavian countries dominated, with Norway, Denmark and Sweden grabbing the top 3 positions in the 2012 ranking. The U.S. fell to the 12th position, behind No. 6 Canada; No. 7 Finland; and No. 11 Luxembourg, among others.

The Legatum Prosperity Index seeks to capture long-term underlying components of national prosperity, rather than focus on quarterly or annual fluctuations in national economies.

In discussing this year’s ranking, authors Jeffrey Gedmin and Nathan Gamester caution against outdated thinking that places to much emphasis on GDP growth when evaluating national prosperity:

“For three-quarters of a century, gross domestic product has been single most important framework for evaluating economic success. In recent years, though, a ‘beyond GDP’ debate has started.” My recent column “Can America’s middle-class learn something from France?” makes a similar case that higher GDP numbers do not necessarily equate to higher prosperity for the middle-class.

The Wall Street Journal, a pro-business bastion of Republican-leaning fiscal conservatism, published “U.S. Prosperity Is In Decline” by the Legatum authors as its lead op-ed on October 30th. Read more »

Waves wash over the seawall near high tide at Battery Park in New York Monday. | AP Photo

Note from Dan: Mark Jurkevich is taking a short vacation, so there will be no fresh posts from him today or Monday. Here’s an oldie-but goodie he wrote for this blog on March 10, 2010 under the pen name, MarkX. I’ve edited it lightly, added a comment and changed the art. Incidentally, comedian Bill Maher disagrees (NSFW).

By Mark Jurkevich

By now it’s pretty hard for the informed and interested not to be certain that the orthodox global warmers, led by their front man, Al Gore, have grossly distorted the facts to fit their story line.

Yes, in 2010, I no longer fear being labeled a heretic and brought before an Inquisition for making such a statement!  To throw Gore’s words back into his face – this fraud is now established fact and we have to move beyond that debate and now identify who is behind it and what is their motivation. Read more »

Santa Maria Church in Paganica, damaged by the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake | pablo72 | Wikimedia Commons

By Mark Jurkevich

Six Italian scientists were found guilty of manslaughter by an Italian court for failing to predict the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake.

They were each sentenced to six years in prison, plus damages. They were also ordered to pay the massive court costs, including that of the prosecution, as well as damages. Finally, the guilty scientists were barred from ever holding public office again.

Among those convicted was Enzo Boschi, one of the world’s most respected seismologists, and former head of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.

The Oct. 22 guilty verdict is the culmination of a trial that began in September 2011. The judge deliberated for only four hours before issuing his verdict. Consistent with Napoleonic law used throughout most of continental Europe, a jury was not involved.

More than 300 people perished in the central Italy 6.9 magnitude earthquake. The region resides on an active volcano and earthquake zone.

The 6 convicted scientists were members of the Great Risks Commission, an Italian committee of scientists which evaluates potential for natural disasters. The week before the earthquake, they met to discuss the small earth tremors that had rattled the area for several months.

After the meeting, they issued a statement concluding that a major quake in the near future was improbable, although one could not be excluded. The meeting and statement led to manslaughter charges on grounds that the scientists failed to alert the Aquila population of “an impending major earthquake.” Read more »

Executives of two major Chinese technology companies, Charles Ding, of Huawei Technologies Ltd. (left), and Zhu Jinyun, of ZTE Corporation are sworn in on Capitol Hill before testifying before the House Intelligence Committee in September.

By Mark Jurkevich

The powerful U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence recommended that U.S. telecom operators and governmental agencies avoid business with Chinese tech giants Huawei and ZTE, according to its October 8 report.

The committee argues that deploying technology supplied by these companies poses a national security risk because of their ties to the Chinese government.

Based on the global market penetration of Huawei and ZTE, clearly this opinion is not shared by our allies like the European Union; nor for that matter, by our geopolitical competitors such as Russia.

Huawei conducts 70% of its business outside of China. Last year it generated more than $4 billion revenue in the European Union, and attained a market-leading position in Russia. Read more »

From aswarsaw.org

By Mark Jurkevich

Barack Obama decisively defeated Mitt Romney in the American School of Warsaw (ASW) straw poll held on October 18. The poll was held as a part of the school’s annual UN Day celebration.

Citizens from over 50 countries participated. The vote was open to students (K through 12), faculty, staff and parents. As noted here on September 19^th  my son is a student at this Warsaw, Poland international school.

The ASW UN Day celebration is a fantastic party.  The parents and children of each participating country team-up to put their country’s best foot forward.

Traditional costumes, music and dance are celebrated.  Mouth-watering traditional and exotic foods are free for everyone to enjoy.

To be fair, “the parents,” mostly means the students’ mothers who brilliantly organize the PTA, social clubs and events.

To borrow Mr. Romney’s phrase, ASW has “binders full” of great mothers who sustain this vibrant international community.

Keeping to tradition, there was a parade around the school grounds with the U.S. delegation in front, headed by a fifth grader carrying our Stars & Stripes flag. U.S. Embassy staff participated, and U.S. Ambassador Lee Feinstein gave the keynote speech.  Read more »

(Clockwise, from bottom left): Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament; Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission; Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council.

By Mark Jurkevich

The Noble Peace Prize Committee briefly stunned many of its followers on October 12th when it awarded this year’s prize to the European Union. The shock did not last long, as evidenced by the snowballing barrage of sarcasm ever since.  Here are some of my favorite zingers out of Europe:

• “The Nobel committee is a little late for an April fool’s joke” – Martin Callanan, member of European Parliament.

• “This goes to show that the Norwegians really do have a sense of humor” – Nigel Farage, member of European Parliament.

• “Nobel prize for the EU. At a time Brussels and all of Europe is collapsing in misery. What next? An Oscar for (president of the European Council) Van Rompuy?” – Geert Wilders, parliamentary group leader in the Dutch House of Representatives.

• “Black humor” – Jean-Luc Melechon former French senator and minister of Vocational Education.

• “Ridiculous, preposterous and absurd” at a time when people in the streets of Athens “are dressing up as Nazis” – Lord Lamont, British MP and former Chancellor of the Exchequer.

• “Hilarious” – Douglas Carswell, British MP.

• “The Nobel judges have gone mad. They have now finally lost it. The biggest myth about the European Union is that it has prevented war in Europe again. What an insult to modern Germany” – British MP and Conservative Party member. Read more »

Christ the Savior Cathedral | Katedra Chrystusa Zbawiciela | Wikimedia Commons

By Mark Jurkevich

Last week Russophobic members of the U.S. media, led by the Wall Street Journal, celebrated the sentence reduction to time served for Pussy Riot punk rock member Yekaterina Samutsevich. She was originally sentenced to two years for her part in the February, 21 2012 desecration of Christ The Savior Cathedral in Moscow.

The Appeals Court reduced the sentence on the grounds that Samutsevich was stopped by security guards before she could join the band mates who actually committed the acts of desecration. The other members will continue their 2-year jail sentences.

From the day these hooligans committed the crime, condemnation of Russia by the U.S. government and mainstream media has continued in a never-ending torrent. Many of our western allies followed along in this blatant show of hypocrisy and self righteousness.

It seems no commentary of the story can be published or shown on TV unless the criminal act is referred to as “an anti-Putin punk prayer.” Pussy Riot performed it in the Cathedral because they claim the Russian Orthodox Church supports President Vladimir Putin. Read more »

Wikimedia Commons

By Mark Jurkevich

The recent annual UN General Assembly in New York was a good time to recall how some starry-eyed idealists believed the formation of this club would eliminate wars.

The logic was that one member of the club wouldn’t attack another. Since practically all countries quickly signed up for membership, world peace would soon be a done deal. While things didn’t turn out quite so nicely, at least membership in the club is relatively cheap.

Cyprus’ recent assumption of the rotating European Union Council presidency is a good time to look back upon the promise of a newer club – the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. Unlike the UN, it’s designed for war scenarios. Its motto is “An attack on one (member) country is an attack on all (member) countries.” Unlike the UN, this club’s membership fees are very high.

Cyprus, the island, consists of two countries that have been in a state of war since 1974. The Greek part of the island, Cyprus the country, was accepted into the EU in 2004.  The Turkish part is called The Turkish Republic Of Northern Cyprus. Nicosia is often referred to as the last divided capital in the world.

This bitter proxy war fought by Turkey and Greece was initially very hot. Now it is a cold war, but still bitter. Turkey is symbolically boycotting the European Union during the current Cyprus Presidency of the EU Council.

Both Greece and Turkey have been members of NATO since 1952. This causes an obvious conundrum for NATO when trying to follow through on its motto of “An attack on one country is an attack on all countries. Read more »

By Mark Jurkevich

If we apply conservative American economic and political dogma to France, that country should have imploded decades ago.

Here’s a short list of France’s blasphemous offenses towards self-evident laws of prosperity, as defined by America:

•   A debt-to-GDP ratio of 90%.
•   Average GDP growth from 1978 to present of 0.5%.
•   A top tax bracket of 45%. The new government has proposed a “millionaire surcharge” effectively creating a 75% top tax rate.
•   Universal health care and national health insurance.
•   Labor laws that require a 3 to 6 month process to fire an employee, after which the employer incurs further costs for up to an additional year if the former employee stays unemployed.
•   Perpetually high single-digit or even double-digit unemployment rates.
•   State investment and management of industry, highlighted by companies such as Renault, EADS/Airbus, France Telecom, and SNCF, the French National Railway Corp.
•   $8 per-gallon gas. Read more »

hugovk | Wikimedia Commons

By Mark Jurkevich

Note from Dan: Mark is off today, but will return with his regularly scheduled post on Wednesday. With his permission, I’m posting a recent email he sent from Prague, following a night on the town that included many rounds of absinthe in a small dive bar. Mark tells me the formerly banned hallucinogenic liquor isn’t nearly as potent as it used to be. One way it’s now sold in Prague is mixed into soft-serve ice cream. A cone costs 35 Czech koruna, which is about $1.50.

Dan,

Last night I went out until the wee hours in Old Town Prague with DR and VH (I am protecting privacy here), two people from a leading Czech telecom company. Both are really sharp. DR is a viral marketing expert, who happens to be a very attractive lady. With me was also a colleague from France, who is now based in Spain. We ended up in a dive absinthe bar.

VH started talking about a recent local trial of an American college kid charged with vandalism. Apparently he busted off a piece of an historic 700-year-old town clock, breaking it in the process. The punch line of this funny story making the rounds in Prague is the American’s explanation to the judge.  He argued that there was no sign near the clock prohibiting breaking off pieces.

As the conversation evolved into the charming peculiarities of Americans, I pulled up last week’s Fort Ross essay on my iPhone; not for them to read it, but to show them some of the comments about Europe made by the good folks of Roanoke, Va. Read more »