innovation 15:12

Nothing is ever too objective but charts and graphs give us a good picture of what is generally going on in the world. So what can this list of the fifty most innovative companies tell us?

1) US still dominates in innovation. 22 out of 50 companies are American. If one breaks down the companies by their countries, it would go something like: Japan in second with five, China and Britain with four, Germany and Korea with three, Switzerland, Canada, Italy, Brazil, Finland and Spain with one each.

2) Innovation is increasing in Asia (13 in total). Especially as China rises, the number of innovations, patents, and companies will naturally increase as well. We see this in the number of patents Asia is producing (The top three patent holders are America, Japan, and South Korea) and even in the number of gold medal counts at the Olympics.

3) Innovation is decreasing in Europe (11 in total). Although still a very affluent part of the world, many continue to wonder when and if Europe will ever be as powerful as it once was. Or perhaps, the social Marxist bent of many European governments tends not to lend itself to innovation? I personally wouldn't care to work hard to create if the government took care of all my needs. (Although with the collapse of certain economies (i.e. Greece), the E.U., especially with Germany's lead, is slowly realizing that their socialist governments were unsustainable and unrealistic. While our country, on the contrary AND unfortunately, goes the other way.)

4) Brazil is listed as well (although the one company seems to be an oil company). Will we start to see more companies from other parts of the world?

east asian economic bloc 19:18

I am sure most people in America do not really know or care for that matter, but this year is the first year that the combined GDPs of China, Japan, South Korea, and the Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) equaled to about 12.67 trillion dollars or 21.1 percent of the world's GDP. This is significant because by next year, East Asia's economic bloc will surpass that of the Euro bloc. By 2014, it is set to equal that of the US.

While the economies of the West continue to decline, Asia's continues to grow, mostly of course through its interaction with China. There is much talk these days about integrating their economies - much like what has happened in Europe. Even Japan, with its newly elected liberal government, is courting South Korea and China and resuming stalled talks on Free Trade Agreements and historical issues that were left more or less unresolved. They are also trying to rebuild their military so that they will not have to rely on the US. South Korea has just landed a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, yet another possible strategy to lessen American influence. (Although the FTA with America is still pending. Where that goes, who knows...) Naturally, this makes the US uneasy as two of their allies are now trying to break away American influence and assert themselves more.

Will China be able to claim once again, their position as the biggest economy in the world? I personally hope not.