Watch These Three Countries as the Price of Oil Falls

“The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 had many causes. None was as basic as the fall in the price of oil, its main export, by two-thirds in real terms between 1980 and 1986.  By the same token, the 14-year rule of Vladimir Putin, heir to what remained, has been bolstered by a threefold rise in the oil price.”

Oil is falling again, and this week’s drop in price was severe.  Some countries that depend on the sale of oil they produce will be squeezed on profits.  “For those governments that have used the windfall revenues from higher prices to run aggressive foreign policies, things could get uncomfortable. The most vulnerable are Venezuela, Iran and Russia.”

From The Economist, page 16, “Many winners, a few bad losers,” October 25, 2014

A Time to be Grateful

Grace fascinates for its many dimensions.  It goes well beyond the spiritual meanings.  You can think of physical grace or gracefulness, which is an ability to move around effortlessly.  You can think of social grace.  In Greek mythology the Charites, known as The Three Graces, were the goddesses of joy, charm and beauty.  They were named Aglaia (Splendor), Euphrosyne (Mirth), and Thalia (Good Cheer).  The Graces presided over banquets, dances, and all other pleasurable social events, and brought joy and goodwill to both gods and mortals.   In Roman mythology they were known as the Gratiae, which connotes gratitude. 

With grace and gratitude derived from the Latin gratus, the meaning of grace can be extended to mean a sense of gratitude or gratefulness.  “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.  It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow,” writes Melodie Beattie.               

from Threes, Chapter 4, “Threes in Religion and Mythology” 

Three Things Distinguish Interstellar

“No one willingly attends a space science fiction movie with a space history curator. The audible eye rolling, heavy sighing and groans of protest when the laws of physics are violated through the magic of CGI can ruin even the most entertaining and fast-paced science fiction movie for others. Even tightly written movies that cause the most skeptical to suspend disbelief for the duration of the film later generate days of recrimination over historical, logical, mechanical and physical flaws. The flaws can range from meaningless ones to grand leaps of faith; all of which can unravel the entire fabric of the story. Interstellar is not one of these movies.  

“Three things distinguish the film from recent space-themed movies: it is grounded in the current concerns of our world; its plot is rich in the technically accurate science and technology of spaceflight and the movie pays homage to the best of the spaceflight cinema genre. All three themes transport the viewer and leave few concerns for what might be missing, rather than what the film got wrong.”  

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-interstellar-belongs-pantheon-best-realistic-science-fiction-films-

China Is Number One Again

When the International Monetary Fund released its ranking of the largest economies last month, China returned to top spot for the first time in two centuries.  Measured in purchasing power parity, China moved ahead of the United States, which had been number one since 1820.  India is number three.

 

One hundred years ago the three top economies were United States, Japan and Britain.  Economists think China will continue to grow for a long time, and better wages will continue to lift a large poor segment of its society into the middle class where they can become consumers.

 

Read more in Threes, Chapter 6 “Threes in Economics and Finance”