For more than a decade, NewWork News has surveyed the world's news having to do with life and work in the revolutionary new world economy. Over all these years, we have not made a significant effort to distinguish between straight reporting and editorial comment.

Written by Gary Johnson, NewWork News each day is more like a newspaper or magazine column than a newspaper's front page. However, nearly every item is linked to at least one original story from somebody else's "front page" so as to enable our readers easily to examine the original story without deliberate interpretation or commentary.

Some NewWork News items are highly analytical. Several of these have been gathered together for presentation below. All have been written by Gary Johnson.

How $4.00 gasoline is affecting Americans (Monday, 6/30/08)
A new poll from the Associated Press finds that 90 percent of those surveyed report that high-priced gas is changing their lifestyles.

The U. S. economy has been built on the availability of inexpensive energy, as well as a high degree of consumption, often on borrowed money. So it's likely that the American culture will have to adjust to the new realities in some fundamental ways.

For many years, Europeans have been used to much higher priced gasoline and would still regard $4.00 per gallon as ridiculously inexpensive. However, the principal reason that gas has cost much more in Europe than in the United States for so many years is that it is taxed to a much greater extent in Europe, and the tax revenues are used to support social programs.

Also, for many years, Americans have had a reputation as borrowers and spenders, not savers. Higher gasoline and food prices are putting so many Americans into an immediate financial bind because so many already are "tapped out." Many Americans carry a tremendous amount of personal debt, which is to say that they spend a major proportion of their time working simply to pay interest--"rent"--on other people's money and have little left over at the end of the month to pay for other things. It is said that personal debt in the United States now totals approximately $2.5 trillion dollars.

Overall, the U.S. has accumulated an enormous national debt which was approximately $6 trillion five years ago when the war in Iraq began, but which now totals approximately $10 trillion. To help put things into perspective, the world's combined GDP amounts to approximately $50 trillion per year.

Newspapers cut more jobs (Sunday, 6/29/08)
As the Sun Microsystems corporate slogan goes, "The Internet changes everything." People running newspapers are beginning to believe it, as an increasing number of people get their news and handle what used to be called "classified ads" online as well. Ad revenues have been dipping precipitously, and Seth Sutel writes that more papers are cutting more jobs.

The cuts are hitting the electronic media hard too. For instance, the television trade press is filled with stories about job cuts at local TV stations across the country. Even cable and over-the-air television networks are experiencing major revenue dips and see more on the horizon. Broadcast jobs are being cut right and left. In fact, the era of the zilliionaire anchors may be over, many are saying.

Digital pennies are driving out analog dollars, as they say. It's becoming clear that the Internet offers the most efficient way to distribute words, pictures, drawings, and video, and as more Internet connections become more rapid, these advantages will increase.

However, despite the fact that the Internet has become a major advertising medium, nobody yet has developed a really effective business model for the Internet that will support the kinds of expensive staffs and media activities that have been commonplace among newspapers, individual broadcast stations, and networks.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: China Digital Times (Sunday, 6/29/08)
People throughout much of the world, including Americans, are already feeling pressures from China's rapidly growing economy, and more are to come. For instance, crude oil which was selling on the international market for $29 a barrel at the time the war in Iraq started in 2003 is now approximately $140 a barrel. China's energy appetite isn't the only reason, but it is one.

Americans and others around the world have good reason to keep informed about China, and the China Digital Times will be a helpful resource. Unlike the Xinhua News Agency, it ISN'T under the control of the Chinese government. In fact, its news stories are gathered from a wide variety of independent sources from around the world.

What? THREE BILLION DOLLARS with a "b"? (Saturday, 6/28/08)
"My gosh, that's about what the U. S. is spending in a WEEK in Iraq," somebody said with mock seriousness.

Ben Evans reports from Washington on what it's likely to cost the federal government to open up those black farmers' lawsuits again.

Bread and Butz (Friday, 6/27/08)
Earl Butz, who died in February in his late 90s, was Secretary of Agriculture during the Nixon and Ford administrations. He represented many things that his critics would like to forget, but his use of a loaf of bread as a TV prop had it about right. He used to say that farmers were not responsible for the high cost of bread during those years. In fact, what farmers got for the grain going into a loaf was best represented by a single slice. All the other slices represented other costs, including packaging.

We don't know whether the cost of the grain exceeds the cost of the plastic in which a loaf of bread is wrapped at this point or not, but Avi Salzman tells why the high price of corn, wheat, and other farm products is more directly related to increased supermarket prices in the produce aisle than in other parts of the store.

Much of America's farmland has been disabled either by drought or by flooding, which has helped increase farm product prices for those farmers who are fortunate enough to have something to sell. The good years help pay for the bad.

Last fall, one Dakota farmer remarked, "Farmer's are always saying 'Wait until next year' Well, this is 'next year." During 2007, grain prices were high, and so were yields in his part of the country.

However, while farm product prices have increased since last fall, diesel prices have gone through the roof. So far, his land still hasn't been claimed by the encroaching drought and hasn't been flooded yet either, but he has had plenty of hail. Stay tuned.

After today, Billionaire Bill will no longer run Microsoft... (Friday, 6/27/08)
...But he'll still be Billionaire Bill. For years, during Microsoft's early period, Bill Gates looked like a child, and his appearance may have helped IBM underestimate him, something that few individuals or organizations have done since.

While still not yet 53-years-old, Bill Gates is retiring today as head of the world's most important software company.

He hasn't needed the money for a long time. In fact, he was the wealthiest individual in the world while still in his 30s; but, until fairly recently, retiring from Microsoft would have been like trying to dismount from a tiger. Bill had achieved cult-like status, and it's likely that other Microsoft stockholders would have raced to sell their shares if there had been the slightest inkling that Bill was getting out.

Now, though, the company is no longer perceived as an extension of one man, and it's likely that he can safely retire without risking a major decline in the value of his own Microsoft stock and that of others.

Incidentally, as Bill waves "goodbye," he doesn't think that Microsoft and Yahoo! are likely to get together. Also, Bill's gone after today, but Widows XP has until Monday.

Here's something that many young Americans may not want to hear (Thursday, 6/26/08)
According to some of the polls, many young people in the United States don't regard technical occupations as "cool." This is not the case with young people throughout the world, however. Whatever technical jobs America's young either don't want, or--more likely--aren't prepared to perform, will be happily taken by young Chinese, South Asian Indians, or young people from a whole range of other countries.

Moreover, despite their privileged position in the world for decades now, Americans aren't in the least entitled to good jobs or pleasant middle-class lifestyles. From now on, they'll have to work hard and compete with smart, well-prepared young people in countries that most American probably can't find on a map.

In the United States, the good jobs will be in technology, as Arik Hesseldahl reports. Along related lines, the American Electronics Association has released its latest "Cybercities" report, which tells where a lot of those hi-tech jobs will be located. Silicon Valley and New York still top the list, but there are other places, as well.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Thomas Jefferson Fossil Collection (Thursday, 6/26/08)
America's founders have become "plaster saints," to some extent, which makes it difficult for many contemporary Americans to recognize, that despite their remarkable gifts, they were human beings, made out of the same stuff as the rest of us.

For instance, it's likely that Thomas Jefferson spent much of his life fighting "dilettantism," even though his was a time when it was still possible to know at least the outlines of several fields at once. This is much less the case now, given that we have been inundated with information and most of us have been forced to become increasingly specialized. We have come to know more and more about less and less, and, as several gagsters have suggested, the ultimate result of this is that we will know everything about nothing.

However, despite their being "flesh and blood" people like the rest of us, it's easy to exaggerate how "ordinary" many of the founders were, including Jefferson. He wasn't 90 feet tall, and, after all, he was a slave holder who wasn't all that courageous about his obvious conflicts over the matter. In fact, if it were being done today, there might be a John Adams memorial in Washington, D. C., rather than a Jefferson Memorial.

Nonetheless, he had broad interests as well as an impressive range of competencies. For instance, here is Thomas Jefferson's fossil collection from the Academy of natural Sciences.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: U. S. Religious Landscape Survey (Tuesday, 6/24/08)
Some of the results from the U. S. Religious Landscape Survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life frequently have been described in news stories the past day or two. You can access the entire report on this site, which is more than 280 pages in length.

Among many other things, the survey reflects the extreme level of religiosity in the United States, compared to Western Europe and many other locations around the world. In fact, according to self-reports, the United States seems to be among the most religious countries in the world, along with some of the Islamic nations in the Mideast and elsewhere. The Pew survey also indicates that, despite their religiosity, Americans have become less dogmatic and more tolerant of opposing points of view.

Some observers have interpreted this as a good thing, but others believe that Americans may be beginning to believe that "any religion is as good as any other," so long as participation somehow makes a person feel good. Among other things, this may mean that Americans are in the early stages of becoming less religious in traditional ways.

The Pew Foundation began in Philadelphia, where it still maintains offices. In addition, it has offices in Washington, D. C.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (Sunday, 6/22/08)
The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative is a 15-year project "to realize the untapped potential of interdisciplinary research."

However, we would go further than most interdisciplinary efforts and suggest that one important implication of the revolutionary times in which we live is that it has become necessary to reassess the nature of the disciplines themselves now and then.

For instance, will "psychology" survive much longer as a name for a major category of research? Its antique origins are implicit in its name, and the field is beginning to look more and more like it has been "cobbled together," much as present-day Iraq was an artificial creation of Winston Churchill and others who were mostly interested in the convenience of Western Europe when they created a "country" that really was a collection of "time-bombs."

So, is research jointly conducted by "psychologists" and "neuroscientists" really interdisciplinary, or is it time to rethink disciplinary boundaries and categories in the first place?

What does it take to be right about oil prices? What does it take to be sure about them? (Saturday, 6/21/08)
It's widely believed that it's very difficult to make predictions. In fact, it's tremendously easy. Anybody can do it. However, being RIGHT is the hard part.

Crude oil prices that have reached stratospheric levels presents a similar conundrum. There are lots of explanations for the high prices, and, as Jad Mouawad and Diana Henriques of the New York Times write, the choice is yours.

How "virtual man" could shorten the time it takes for new drugs to reach the market (Saturday, 6/21/08)
Probably the most fundamental aspect of the Hippocratic Oath is that physicians are admonished to "do no harm." That's become harder with designer medications that can have thousands of interactions, any one of which can produce dangerous side-effects for some people, but not for others. Ben Hirschler writes from Paris on how a new kind of "steel collar worker" might shorten the time that pharmaceutical companies now require for R&D..

Wanna buy a Rolex for $1.95? (Thursday, 6/19/08)
In order to become effective members of the international business community, developing countries are likely to have to develop their intellectual property laws, and this will mean changing cultures. Of course, most big operators in international piracy know exactly what they're doing. Georgina Coolidge writes from Washington about the huge yearly cost to U. S. companies.

Big pay for "fixer" CEOs (Monday, 6/16/08)
Some troubled companies hire "fixer" CEOs like some families call the fire department, and, as Ellen Simon writes from New York, they tend to charge big money for their services. In fact, lots of CEOs had a good year last year. Here's more from Rachel Beck and Matthew Fordah, also in New York.

Incidentally, if you've followed the careers of the kinds of CEO "firemen" referred to above, you'll probably remember "Chainsaw Al" Dunlap who developed a tremendous reputation for "saving" corporations during the 1990s by cutting thousands of jobs and closing plants. However, it didn't turn out too well for workers, the companies, or, for that matter, him. Al was accused of padding revenues at Sunbeam-Oster Corporation. He was fired and agreed to pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit.

Enabling, Saudi style (Sunday, 6/15/08)
It seems clear that the thing that will most assist the development of alternative energy sources, as well as energy independence, is high oil prices. This seems clear to Saudi Arabian officials too, so, with an eye to the long-run, the Saudis have decided to increase oil production next month. Neil King of the Wall Street Journal says that the Saudis don't want to "lose their leverage."

Paulson wants a stronger dollar (Saturday, 6/14/08)
Who doesn't? Stronger is better, right? Well, to a point, but there are limits. When euros, yen, or yuan, say, buy more dollars, it tends to encourage tourists from affected countries to visit the United States and spend their money. Also, a weaker dollar makes it easier for foreigners to buy our exports.

However, it's possible to have too much of a good thing. For instance, last November, a supermodel refused to be paid in dollars, and opted for euros instead. More seriously, it can make America's debtors nervous about continuing to hold dollars and particularly nervous about holding more. Incidentally, one of the major debtors is China.

Finally, crude oil is traded in dollars, and the sinking dollar is one of the factors responsible for the tremendously high prices of recent weeks. Wait--haven't speculators had something to do with driving prices up? Sure, but the weakening dollar encourages them. If the dollar were strong, they would be speculating in something else. In short, it's not all about the leveling off of supply combined with increasing demand around the world, including China and India.

Attention span of a sparrow, but maybe not the memory of a goldfish (Friday, 6/13/08)
A New York City business research organization finds that knowledge workers don't necessarily stick with one thing at a time.

Heavy rains cut corn estimates (Wednesday, 6/11/08)
A few years ago, most people wouldn't have thought that corn ever could become the subject of major news stories. Now, though, corn is used for both food and fuel, so any reduction in supply will have widespread effects and certainly make news. Jae Hur reports that heavy rains in parts of the United States have been cutting output estimates, and that means higher corn prices.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Current Gas Prices and Price History Wednesday, 6/11/08)
The price of gasoline is just like the weather--everybody talks about it; nobody, well, nobody sings about it.

Sorry, couldn't resist. If you want to talk about gas prices (or sing about them), or simply agonize over them in an informed sort of way, you'll probably want to consult the Current Gas Prices and Price History site.

Overseas markets decline because of inflation fears (Tuesday, 6/10/08)
Asian and European investors appear to fear that central banks will tighten credit because of high energy prices.

Meanwhile, in the United States, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been thinking--and talking--about inflation as well, suggesting, as we reported yesterday, that he hasn't ruled out intervening in order to strengthen the U. S. dollar against other major world currencies. His comments, as well as those of Secretary Paulson, drove the dollar a bit higher.

Speculators seem to be playing a significant role in driving crude oil prices into the stratosphere, but the weak American dollar has been influential, as well, and the two are related. If the dollar were stronger, speculators would be less drawn to crude oil, and, instead, would be likely to put their money in something else.

Here's somebody who believes that the oil bubble will burst (Saturday, 6/7/08)
While the price of crude oil may reach $150. per barrel by the 4th of July as many predict, Shawn Tully believes that prices won't stay at such astronomical levels. It's a bubble that WILL burst, he suggests. While several factors contribute to the current high prices, including the weak American dollar, speculators are having quite a lot to do with it, just as speculators drove housing prices up beyond all reason a few years ago, as well as dot.com stocks.

However, others aren't so sure about Mr. Tully's analysis. For instance, the U. S. Secretary of Energy says that "flat production" is behind the high price of oil, and suggests that it be increased. Others emphasize that the world has entered a new era, and that global demand will catch up with the "bubbly" prices before they have a chance to return to more comfortable levels.

Much of the world is suffering from the multiple economic whammy. Not only have oil prices increased, so have food prices. In the United States, this "perfect storm" has resulted in a rapid decline in housing prices, as well as stock prices, and the tremendous number of foreclosures. Moreover, the large number of layoffs, rapidly increasing unemployment, and overall employment uncertainty are adding to the miseries.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Ancient Mesopotamia: This History, Our History (Saturday, 6/7/08)
To many scholars, among the most annoying things about the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq was the looting of the Baghdad Museum, which the American military probably could have prevented quite easily. Many people were particularly angered by the "boys will be boys" attitude of some major American officials, suggesting that they didn't realize the significance of this particular museum.

Scholars at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute would not make this mistake. Here is their Ancient Mesopotamia: This History, Our History site.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: International Union for Conservation of Nature (Sunday, 6/1/08)
Not long ago, it was inconceivable to most people that humans could ever threaten nature. Instead, nature seemed always to be threatening humans, and it was regarded as something for people to "conquer," if they could.

Then, suddenly, the world was flooded with people who wanted to improve their living standards. Suddenly, there were several times as many human beings on the Earth as there had been through tens of thousands of years of human history until only a short time before.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature recognizes the contemporary need for development, but attempts to help the world preserve the natural environment as well.