Juggling Dynamite

Where once the problem was lack of supply, today a majority of humans are physically diminished by the too many calories they are consuming. Food knowledge and discipline on how and what to grow, prepare and consume for a healthy body are extremely rare wisdom today. This gives those who have it a significant advantage. This is not so simple as wealth or social class. Lots of people with ample means are eating themselves into ill health and teaching their kids how to do it from birth.  The good news is that when we show children how to eat for strong health, the habits tend to stay with them for a lifetime. The opposite is also true.  Health is foundational to productivity and quality of life, what could be more important than this?

Jamie Oliver is doing some very important work in his Food Revolution.  Here is a direct video link.

A bubble in student debt, enabled by central banks and underwritten by governments, has allowed post-secondary education costs to balloon more than 9% a year since 2000.  Meanwhile incomes have stagnated and job opportunities narrowed. The education delivered is not more valuable today, only more expensive, and the model has become grossly inefficient and counter-productive.

Only lenders and the administrators of bloated school budgets have benefited from this massive mal-investment of resources.  As debt levels must contract, this system and pricing is no longer sustainable.

Solutions lie in affordable, efficient delivery channels. Sal Khan is a leader in the education evolution that is necessary.

Salman Khan, Khan Academy Founder & CEO, discusses why he keeps Khan Academy free for students, what he thinks about public schools across the United States and how he’s working to forward education efforts across the globe. Here is a direct video link.

According to the CIA Factbook the global broad money supply totaled $81.3 trillion in 2014 and more than a triple from $25 trillion in 2000. For a visualization on the relative size of all global markets and monetary instruments see:  All the world’s money and markets in one visualization.

As monetary fire hoses have flooded the financial system the rate of global economic growth has plunged from 4.33% in 2000 to 2.47% in 2015.

Unrepentant, last week central bank heads said they will need to dramatically increase liquidity operations during the next recession.  In this approach, there is little doubt that global growth will soon look like global interest rates–flat to negative.

When will we be ready to adopt an intelligent approach that focuses on rebuilding savings rather than increasing debt?  On investing in efficiency and productivity rather than speculating in damaging asset bubbles?  Apparently not yet.