Filed under: Economic
There’s been much turmoil over the past year and I keep reading of extraordinary events that have happened “for the first time ever”.
A quick google news search reveals some interesting results from this – perhaps little signals amid the all the uncertainty of the future direction we’re heading in?
“For the first time ever China bought more new cars in the first half of 2009 than the U.S”
http://blogs.zdnet.com/green/?p=6041
“On July 13th, for the first time ever, a private rocket company has successfully placed a satellite in orbit”
“The US federal deficit topped one trillion US dollars for the first time ever”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hrIHTN_1_szqyV1lZDfVCl6cNKpA
“For the first time ever, Microsoft, the world’s largest PC software company, experienced a drop in sales of its Windows software and carried out large-scale layoffs”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/technology/companies/15chip.html
President Obama stepped up on renewables and passed regulations to “enable, for the first time ever, the nation to tap into our ocean’s vast sustainable resources to generate clean energy”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/energy_and_environment/
“For the first time ever there are now more pensioners than children in the UK”
Peter Andre has announced that “I honestly believe for the first time ever that I’m going to have an international album”
http://www.itv.com/lifestyle/thismorning/entertainment/peterandre001/default.html
OK, so the last one may be a red herring.
And just because something’s happened for the very first time doesn’t make it significant in the long term.
Is this just erratic ‘noise’ amid the chaos?
I think not. Some of these big shifts of our time that may have appeared insignificant before the crunch are now accelerating with a vengeance.
RICHARD
