Energy Prices Surge—No Problem for Europe:

Like you, I haven't heard much lately about the lazy European labor force that refuses to make the proper sacrifices for efficiency's sake. You no, shorter vacations, longer hours, no health care. Unlike Americans, Europeans have six weeks of vacation a year, work about five fewer hours, and, oh, yeah, there's that universal health care thing.

So how's their economy doing now that oil prices and the price of everything else that depends on oil doing? Up 1.5 percent over the past three months, thank you very much. In case you're not an economist, that's significant. Germany is leading the way, according to The New York Times.

The Dude interprets the Declaration of Independence: "We hold dear what our Declaration of Independence says, that all have got uninalienable rights, endowed by a Creator." — George W. Bush, Moscow, Russia, May 2002. (Exactly!)

China Facts: "Number of privately owned cars in China 11,500,000. Number of additional cars on Beijing roads every day 1,000. Year the government began encouraging private car ownership in China 1994." (Source: ngm.com)

Parents Build Stuff—Kids Play with Stuff:

The decline in engineers in the United States has been the hot topic in education, government and business for more than twenty years. American engineers built stuff, and their kids just want to use that stuff. Now the Japanese are experiencing the same "flight from science."

The New York Times reports that Japanese "companies are slowly starting to import foreign workers, or sending jobs to where the engineers are, in Vietnam and India." As an added note, The Times points out that Japan has one of the lowest birthrates in the world. Turning the country around doesn't seem very likely.