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.

Sachs says that "stagflation" has returned (Saturday, 5/31/08)
If you're old enough to remember the 1970s, you're probably old enough to remember "stagflation." Famed scholar Jeffry Sachs says that it's back. Among other things, the world is suffering from a shortage of energy, food, and water, he says, and technology will be the solution.

We've been saying for several years that major international conflicts over the availability of fresh water are coming, and we've also pointed out that food has become increasingly scarce over much of the world, and not simply because of distribution problems.

Now, are we really short of energy, or are we simply running short of oil, which is a different matter entirely? Modern physics tells us that the matter we see all around us and of which we ourselves are composed really is a sort of "frozen" energy. Einstein's famous E= MC2 equation shows how much energy is tied up in the smallest bit of matter, and nuclear technology has demonstrated this in very practical ways.

However, nuclear power plants produce radioactive waste that nobody wants stored for a million years in their backyard. If we could find a safe way to jettison it into the Sun, there wouldn't be a problem, but most people probably don't want a failed rocket launch to spray radioactive gunk over a large area of the Earth's surface either.

Shortly after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, a Japanese general said that he feared that they had just "awakened a sleeping giant." With respect to energy, the giant has been dozing too, but seems to be awakening now.

Already, dozens of alternative energy projects are underway. For instance, Texas oil tycoon--or he might prefer "ENERGY tycoon"--Boone Pickens, is preparing to build the world's largest wind farm in his home state. Research is going on now that should quickly result in the production of diesel fuel from algae through a process that takes about as much carbon out of the atmosphere and is put back when the fuel is burned, resulting in a virtual zero carbon footprint. There are dozens of other projects as well.

Has humanity always been so dependent on oil? No, the use of oil as a fuel is a very recent development. Even though it's been known since ancient times, through most of the past several thousand years, it has been used as a medicine or a lubricant. It was first used as a fuel in the form of kerosene for lamps.

There are people still living who have talked to people who could remember when the first oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania in 1859. Only a few days ago, few noticed, let alone celebrated, the 100th anniversary of the discovery of oil in the Middle East on May 26, 1908. There are people still living who were born before that.

Is it likely that the human race will move beyond its recent dependence on fossil fuels? Er, well, again, are there any beer trucks in Germany? Does the Sun first appear in the east in the morning?

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Best Companies for Multicultural Women 2008 (Friday, 5/30/08)
Here's the 2008 list of the Best Companies for Multicultural Women from Working Mother magazine.

His ancestry is literally African-American, but the fact that presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama almost always is referred to as "black" rather than "white" is telling. Senator Obama himself has said that his father's skin was "black as pitch," while his mother's was "white as snow." That is, he's as much "white" as he is "black," so why is he referred to as "black" all the time, even by his supporters?

It's almost reminiscent of the categories imposed on people in the old South Africa. How much "black" ancestry does one have to have in order to be considered "black" by a lot of people? Not very much, apparently, if any of the superficial physical features are perceived, even in a country where many "blacks" have white ancestors and many "whites" have black ancestors.

Hollywood star Morgan Freeman says that the best way to get rid of the American preoccupation with racial or ethnic labels is to stop talking about them. Whoopi Goldberg has emphasized that she is NOT an African-American, but simply an American. She seems to have the right idea. So-called "black" people and so-called "white" people may wear different color socks at times too. So what?

Americans like euphemisms as well, and it's easy to demonstrate the enormous power of language. "Colored people" sounds antique and racist, while "people of color" sounds contemporary and correct. Working Mother magazine sometimes refers to the women this list refers to as "multicultural women" and sometimes as "women of color." Caucasian women are "women of color" too. Their skin often is sort of a pale pink.

Historically, racism has been responsible for the destruction of tens of millions of lives, as well as greatly limiting tens of millions more. However, even if this had not been the case, these attitudes are so monumentally irrational and stupid. They're in the same league as believing that there is a rhinoceros in your bathtub.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Cost of Gasoline (Tuesday, 5/27/08)
Some drivers naively assume that their local gas stations are responsible for the high price of gasoline, and that their local retailers are making a lot of money on the high prices. Nothing could be further from the truth. Basically, all high gas prices do for filling station owners is make it more likely that there will be "drive-offs," only one or two of which can eliminate their profit for the entire day.

So, where does the price per gallon come from, and where does the fuel stop on its way to your automobile's tank?

Shakespeare in Macbeth: "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble" (Sunday, 5/25/08)
He could have been talking about the current crude oil market. The various explanations for the high price of crude relative to those during most of modern history are credible, but don't explain why the price of crude oil has increased nearly a third in only a month.

Some people are saying that it's a bubble, but one that won't burst like the dot-com bubble of a few years ago.

A Senate hearing considers charges that big investors, such as pension funds, have been speculating and driving the price of oil up beyond all reason. On television recently, one expert said that he believes that crude oil would be $50 less expensive per barrel, if pension funds and college endowments had not been buying nearly as much oil as China. Pogo, the old comics character, said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Europeans have been used to paying far more for gasoline than Americans, and even $4.00 per gallon would strike most Euroepean drivers as ridiculously low. However, the reason that gasoline has cost consumers so much more in Europe than in the United States for many years, is that European governments tax it much more than it is taxed in the U. S. The tax money is then used for public purposes.

The current rapid rise of the price of gasoline in America, though, isn't because of increased taxes, so we can't expect American society in general to benefit from the higher prices.

The housing bubble may be losing air (Thursday, 5/22/08)
What's a house built of? Well, most of the interior is composed of, er, well, air. However, the real question is whether the housing bubble will go the way of other bubbles from economic history, such as the recent dot.com bubble in the United States, the real estate bubble in Japan some years ago, or the tulip bubble in Holland during the 17th century.

Alan Zibel in Washington reports that the Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight says that the government's home price index decreased by the greatest amount in 17 years during the first quarter of this year.

Thieves are stealing WHAT? And, backyard stills are being used for brewing WHAT? (Tuesday, 5/20/08)
Used cooking oil. Yes, you read right: used cooking oil for brewing biodiesel. Here's more from Garance Burke in San Francisco. It's what happens in the United States when gasoline and diesel prices reach for the stratosphere.

But, wait--many foreigners visiting the U. S. can't believe their eyes either when they see the prices on the pumps, but it's because they are so LOW. In the U. K., for instance, drivers are used to paying the equivalent of more than $8.00 per gallon to fill their automotive gas tanks.

However, Americans are paying almost as much as Europeans to travel the same distance. Gas costs much more in Europe, but cars average about twice as many miles per gallon there as in the U. S. This is true in many other parts of the world as well.

The difference is that Americans use more energy, create more pollution, and contribute far more than their share to climate change.

The long call (Monday, 5/19/08)
CNN conducted a recent survey in which 4 of 5 respondents said that they believe that the American economy already is in recession. But, what's a "recession?" Voltaire would insist that we first define our terms before we try to talk about them.

How many respondents in that survey understand that economists use the term to refer to a "shrinkage" of gross domestic product, or, more specifically, after the GDP has been shrinking for at least two quarters? Clearly, to be of use, the concept of "recession" can't simply mean that we're able to find somebody who feels that s/he is experiencing economic hard times.

However, even many experts believe that the American economy is sputtering right now, whether or not it meets the technical definition of "recession." BusinessWeek magazine is running a series on how the economic downturn is affecting individuals, and here is the first in that series.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Global Wildlife Disease News Map (Monday, 5/19/08)
During a time of climate change, it's particularly important to track wildlife around the world as well as what's happening to them. For reasons which may be obvious, population biologists have a special interest in the epidemiology of wildlife diseases. However, it's not easy to get the information that specialists need. The Global Wildlife Disease News Map offers a step in the right direction.

Anything but slim Pickens (Sunday, 5/18/08)
Most people would say that Texan Boone Pickens has made his fortune in the oil business, and no doubt has benefitted from the recent run up of crude oil prices. However, he might say that he is in the ENERGY business, which may mean oil, but it may mean something else entirely. This Forbes magazine article tells about Mr. Pickens' intention to build the world's largest wind farm.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Coming to America (Thursday, 5/15/08)
America is sending a lot of dollars to the Middle East, which either have to be hidden under mattresses or invested somewhere, and guess where? Where are all those petrodollars going? The Coming to America interactive graph tells the story. Also, a weak dollar means that foreign investors can buy up parts of America at bargain rates as well.

Make sure you've got this right: we're dependent on foreign oil, so we're sending our money overseas to buy it, which, in turn, is used to buy up properties in America, which then belong to foreign investors. Meanwhile, we're borrowing huge amounts of money from other countries, particularly China, to finance our addictive spending at home and abroad.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: World Food Program (Tuesday, 5/13/08)
The World Food Program from the United Nations is trying to respond to the needs of people caught in recent natural disasters while also attempting to supply sufficient nutrition to sustain life to hundreds of millions of the world's most impoverished people. There are far more people living in abject poverty now than through most of human history, because global population is far larger now than ever before. Also, the world's rich have been getting richer, while the poor have been getting poorer.

A major problem is that prices of foodstuffs on international markets have undergone major increases recently, which, for some persons in rich countries, may simply be an inconvenience. For people attempting to live on a dollar a day or less, though, it can be catastrophic and, without international assistance, current prices may mean famine and death.

For a long time, experts said that there was plenty of food in the world, but distribution was the problem. Distribution still is a problem--witness current resistance from the generals controlling Mayanmar or Burma--but demand is outpacing the supply of food now too. What will the world be like 30 years from now when there will be more than nine billion people on the Earth rather than more than 6 billion, as there are now? Stay tuned.

Remember, there were always fewer than 1 billion persons on Earth before 1840 or so. There are people still living who have talked to persons who could remember 1840, so, in long history of the planet, or even of modern humans on the planet, that was only about "a week ago Thursday."

More Americans are getting a regular workout, but not because it's deliberate (Monday, 5/12/08)
No, we're not reporting that vicious people are chasing large numbers of Americans, but many are trading high gasoline prices for bicycles. James MacPherson is in Bismarck, North Dakota, where he reports that bicycle sales are reaching new heights.

Of course, some energy source is required for anything to happen. As every homeowner knows, sooner or later, everything simply falls apart, unless someone conducts regular maintenance. Somehow, energy must be injected into the system to prevent it from simply running down. It's all a matter of "entropy" from the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

So, gasoline prices are up, but so are food prices. Would you rather move about from corn, for instance, that is being turned into energy that your muscles can use, or corn that has been turned into ethanol? For many people, at least for the moment, bicycles may be like the tortoise in relation to the hare, and you remember who won that race, don't you?

Incidentally, if you're interested in how the world would soon look if humans suddenly were to disappear and were unable to maintain all their "stuff," read Alan Weisman's book, The World Without Us. Swallow a few aspirin first, though. Suffice it to say that the world would forget about us pretty quickly, and it wouldn't be terribly long before visitors from outer space would be unable to find evidence that we were ever here.

Should people conduct their own surgery too? (Sunday, 5/11/08)
In the old American work world, many workers had several layers of protection provided by unions and their employer. The new work world as experienced in the United States is one in which far fewer workers are organized and in which employers have been trying to transfer as much of the cost and risk of doing business as possible away from themselves and to their workers.

For instance, many employees now are required to prepare for their retirement by taking charge of managing their own retirement accounts. Eileen Alt Powell tells about some of the costly 401(k) mistakes.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Global Power Barometer (Sunday, 5/11/08)
The President of the United States can schedule a state dinner on command, but he may not be able to accomplish any of the things he really wants to do, given the cross currents of political power in the United States. Similarly, the United States has the power to end life on this planet, but it may not have the ability to influence geopolitical events around the world in the direction that it desires at any particular time.

The Washington Post and scholars at the Denver Research Group are interested in the distribution of power in the world and its changing dynamics. Here is their Global Power Barometer.

If you're in the market for a house, there are plenty of bargains (Friday, 5/9/08)
However, if you need financing, diminishing housing prices and foreclosure auctions may not mean much to you. Also, you might want to think about buying a house in which you will be the first resident, if you're troubled by thoughts of the people who lost the home that you bought at a bargain price.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Eco-towns (Friday, 5/9/08)
Perhaps it is because England was a rural society for centuries with a relatively small population that a love for the countryside, greenery, and gardening remains in the collective memory of Brits, even though Britain's huge population now lives mostly in cities.

The British love of nature easily has translated into ecological concerns, as well as leadership in town planning. Here is a recent government report: Eco-towns: Living a greener future.

Productivity is up, but is that good news? (Wednesday, 5/7/08)
Martin Crutsinger reports from Washington that labor productivity in the United States increased by 2.2 percent in the first quarter of this year. However, it may simply mean that "survivors" are doing more of the work following layoffs. "Productivity" has to do with how much work is done by how many people, on average.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Desalination: A National Perspective (Wednesday, 5/7/08)
As the old saying goes, "Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink." Far more of the Earth's surface is covered by water than by land, but it's not potable. In the long run, competition for fresh water may cause more social unrest and conflict among nations than the food supply and food prices.

For generations, sea water has been seen as a potential source of fresh water, assuming that desalination can be conducted on a large enough scale. Here's a report from the National Academies Press: Desalination: A National Perspective.

What could possibly make $123 per barrel of crude appear inexpensive? (Tuesday, 5/6/08)
Well, $200 oil could do it, and Goldman Sachs is predicting that what cost less than $3.50 a barrel forty years ago could hit $200 a barrel within a couple of years. Those decades during which the much of the world became industrialized has led to a world now that mostly runs on oil.

However, it all began after the invention of photography, meaning that the human species got along without oil for tens of thousands of years. All indications are that we're in another historic transition period after which the world will shift away from fossil fuels and run mostly on alternative sources of energy.

Something resembling "buyer's remorse" at CIT (Tuesday, 5/6/08)
Julie Creswell reports how the CEO of the CIT Group is wishing that he hadn't "spread his company's wings" into subprime mortgage lending. No doubt, he's not the only one and no doubt that CIT isn't the only company.

If you're ever tempted to believe that the people who run big corporations know best, think about the current mortgage and lending crises and how they occurred. And, if you have the time, think about the "bloody merger" of all time a few years ago when AOL bought Time-Warner. Each of the four executives who pulled that off had remarkable resumes, but they managed to blow away $200 billion in shareholder value in only three years.

And, of yes--you can think about the sweet deals enjoyed by several CEOs in which their failures seem to be rewarded with enormous pay outs. It's probably time for shareholders to get more involved in their companies policies and have more say in how their money is being spend.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Innovation Management (Tuesday, 5/6/08)
If you like to be challenged, you're probably living during the right period of history. Tremendous population increases combined with technological revolutions and other novel conditions have resulted in a "perfect storm" that has produced challenges that may be greater than any ever faced by the species before.

However, if you aren't ready to simply throw up your hands in despair, and believe things like climate change, a secure food supply, and the prospect of epidemics are manageable, you'll surely want to consult the Innovation Management site where problem solvers throughout the world share ideas.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Perseus Digital Library (Monday, 5/5/08)
We've commented numerous times on the importance of maintaining historical perspective. For instance, it's important to recognize that the United States really hasn't existed very long. In fact, there are people still living who probably have talked to people who could have talked to Thomas Jefferson. On the other hand, Ancient Rome lasted for a thousand years, and its successor, the Byzantine Empire, lasted another thousand years. But both have been gone now for centuries. The Perseus Digital Library from Tufts University offers an outstanding collection of items from the Classical world, as well as a good deal more.