Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Interesting article from The Economist

http://viewswire.eiu.com/site_info.asp?info_name=social_unrest_table&page=noads&rf=0

7 comments:

Jenny said...

The U.S. is tied with Iceland? I think I need to go to sleep so that I can thinkn more clearly.

LynnaeEtta said...

Apparently! Did you read the methodology section? It really helps explain the rankings.

Jenny said...

Okay, now I read it (I was too tired last night) and it does help.

I just find it interesting that our economic distress level is considered equal to Iceland... that doesn't seem to bode well for our future!

Steve Ruberg said...

The methodology was interesting. Didn't know that you could scientifically "model" unrest.

Found this disturbing, "in the vast majority of cases (46) the country that had an outbreak of instability had suffered a decline in GDP per head in at least one of the two years prior to the occurrence of instability."

Bad times ahead for some countries in the next couple of years?

LynnaeEtta said...

Definitely. Remember the "global food crisis" from last summer that no one talks about any more? It hasn't actually stopped (according to Muhammed Yunus at his lecture last week), just in the headlines of major world newspapers. That's sure to catalyze additional instability.

El Gringo Loco said...

Hm that's funny....Iran is ranked #75...

I think we could move them a little further up on the list, eh?

LynnaeEtta said...

we probably could, now!