Skip to main content

Must read Book...and a little commentary!

This is my first post in sometime and it will not have any actionable trade ideas. But I think it is worth sharing my thoughts.

Anyone with an open mind or any interest to be intellectually challenged about the future, and the role that America will play in the global arena, needs to read Fareed Zakaria's book "The post-American World". Fareed does a great job painting a picture of how America has achieved great success politically, militarily, and economically over the past few hundred years. He goes further to explain the role that America has played in shaping the world as we know it today. Since America's great rise the world has become more interconnected then anytime in history. Although America has remained THE SUPERPOWER for many decades, a global world is presenting challenges that will need America to remain nimble and open to change. With rising nations like China and India with over 2.5 Billion people America is faced with new challenges and must acknowledge these nations and their desires. Gone are the days that America defines all policy's as to how the world should look and operate. Although we have had a great influence and have played a major role in the rise of the other countries we have to realize they may not have the same goals as we do.

As a superpower the U.S has experienced much prosperity and has wanted to share the American dream with the rest of the world. But at some point you have to draw a line between sharing and force feeding your beliefs on other nations. With powers such as the U.S garners it is very easy to become imperialistic, which when looking back on history has not fared very successful in the long run. The U.S has to acknowledge that the world has changed and that we must change with it, if we want to remain a important player. We need to collaborate and open our borders, not isolate ourselves from these rising nations. During the countries great rise it was because of this openness to race, religion, immigration, free trade, etc., that has led to the vast prosperity that this country has experienced.

If we wish to continue to be respected as a world power gone are the days of "do as I say, not as I do", if we wish to set policy that the world should operate under, then we too need to follow them. But they need to be formed with representation from the rest of the world as well. And yes there will be compromise, the American way is not always the right way, as shocking as the may sound.

Don't get me wrong, I love America and believe in our ideals. But I think that everyone can take a step back and realize that just like people countries make mistakes too. I think that America is more then capable of making the necessary changes to remain a super power in the global arena among the "rising rest" that Fareed Zakaria talks about in his book.

We have many issues on our plate now that will take time to work through, and we may have to feel a little pain as a nation to get through them, but we will come out stronger because of it.

I am bullish the United States in the long term and I sincerely believe that we will make the right decisions as a nation that will propel prosperity in this country and the rest of the world for generations to come. Just realize that it is not going to happen overnight.

With that said go read "The Post-American World" by Fareed Zakaria.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

WOW! I think that sums it up

Many of you have been reading this blog may have noticed that my blogging frequency has increased over the past few weeks as I got short the market. As you can imagine I am down money since getting short the market, this is the time when most people pull away from posting. But my goal is to stay active and involved and show you that trading is not always rainbows and butterflies. It is times like these that the things I have been sharing over the past couple of weeks are so important. You need to trade small relative to your account. I have a decent short position in the market and my portfolios are set up to make some awesome returns if we finally turn lower. But something I would like to point out is that my account is 70% Cash.  I learned a long time ago how important it is to live by the rules you preach. Because of my discipline I am able to continue to hold my positions, I have time and capital on my side. I can't stress enough how important it is not to get to big....

Stay Small, Stay Out of Trouble

To expand on my post from yesterday about patience. I want to talk about a very important element that allows patience in a position, and that is staying small. If you trade too big RELATIVE to your personal account size, you are likely to be forced to exit the trade before the trade works in your favor. Many trades myself included have all experienced the pains of trading a position way too large given our account size. There is this predisposition out there that the only way you are going to make money in the financial markets is if you are trading 10 lots of options and 1000 shares of stock at the time. This is not the case, and if this is your mentality you will likely ensure yourself trouble. We have all read the stories of traders blowing up their account. I personally think a good rule of thumb is to not risk more than 5% of your account value on any one position. Good Luck Trading! In The Money Trades And 1 favor that we ask:  If you like the hard work w...
more good news from FXStreet : Tom Fitzpatrick, senior technical analyst at Citibank in New York. Monday, July 15, 2002 "Parity is a psychological, not a technical level...and whether we pause around parity or not, we are likely to see significant further dollar losses...Our initial target is $1.03 to $1.0450. If that level is taken out, it actually casts a question mark against the whole of the dollar's rally of the last seven years, and could open up a full-blown bear market for the dollar." Julian Jessop, chief European economist at Standard Chartered Bank. Monday, July 15, 2002 "The dollar is under pressure from everything from economic problems to asset reallocation away from the U.S. and corporate accounting problems. It's difficult to see any positive factor for the dollar at the moment. The root of the problem is the U.S. current account deficit. If the U.S. doesn't have to attract an enormous amount of foreign capital, people wouldn't have to wor...