“So where, you may be wondering, does the United States fall in all of this? Spoiler alert: not among the top 10. The United States ranks 16th, just ahead of Belgium and just behind the Republic of Ireland. The report also notes that Canada, despite being neighbors with the U.S., and sharing several similar strengths, still significantly outpaces us in almost every measure.”
— If Success Was Measured in Social Progress, Which Nation Would Win? By Katey Troutman, Business CheapSheet, December 17, 2014, U.S.A.
Commentary: Ron Robins
The measure being used is the Social Progress Index (SPI). It attempts to measure basic human needs, foundations of well-being (health, education, etc.) and opportunity (in terms of personal rights, freedoms, and so forth). Performance on these measures forms the foundation for economic success and personal fulfillment. The fact that the U.S. is purportedly performing ‘well’ (on highly adulterated GDP numbers) does not diminish the fact that on measures associated with the SPI, it performs relatively poorly. The public perception of the value of GDP is totally illusory and misguided as measures such as the SPI illustrate. One interesting finding is that all the leading nations have small populations and as usual in these types of measures, are mostly from Scandinavia.
Enlightened Economics 
• Has the Global Trade Engine Stalled? (Goods, perhaps. Services, maybe not)
Posted by Ron Robins on December 21, 2014
“For the first time in nearly half a century, trade between nations has grown slower than the global economy. Some economists believe trade may be at a peak, at least for a while. “Peak Trade” suggests the world could hit a long-term ceiling in terms of the effects of trade growth as an economic driver.”
— Has the Global Trade Engine Stalled? By Eric Justian, December 19, 2014, TriplePundit, U.S.A.
Commentary: Ron Robins
Buy local, make locally, is a major trend in all countries. The huge U.S. economic stimulus package of five years ago mandated domestic sourcing and production, wherever possible. In the U.S., as in many countries, there are large constituencies who see global trade as contributing to massive losses of high paying domestic jobs. Hence, like the U.S., countries around the world are emphasizing buy local, make locally.
Furthermore, renowned trends forecaster Gerald Celente of the Trends Research Institute predicts these trends growing globally together with an anti ‘made in China’ mindset among developed countries’ consumers.
Most of these trends likely apply mostly to the goods trade. But it remains to be seen if the services side of global trade is similarly constrained. My suspicion is that with the growth of the web and recently introduced simultaneous multi-lingual VOIP services such as Skype has inaugurated, services might yet see much further globalization. Services also constitute about 70% of global GDP.
For a more detailed understanding on the growth of the global services trade, read my post, Huge Migration of Service Jobs to Developing World Looming. That essay implies that over the long-term global trade in services — and due to lower cost structures particularly benefits the developing economies — could grow appreciably faster than world GDP.
From an Enlightened Economics perspective, the freer the trade, the better. There’s no better means to economic growth than for the ‘invisible hand’ of the market to function seamlessly and optimally.
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