"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

"This study examines the role of innovation and information and communications technologies in recent OECD growth performances"--Foreword.

"Americans work three jobs just to make ends meet, and unemployment is low only because so many people are in jail." That’s what most European (and many American) pundits believe. While the U.S. economy may create more growth, Europeans think they are better off when it comes to job security, income equality, and other factors. But does European-style "comfy capitalism" really deliver better results than American “cowboy capitalism”? Olaf Gersemann, a German reporter who came to America, checked the facts and discovered that the common perception in Europe and elsewhere of America's economic model is either wrong or misleading. The greater market freedoms in the United States create a more flexible, adaptable, and prosperous system than the declining welfare states of Europe. Contrary to what one might expect, continental Europe’s welfare states provide no meaningful advantage compared with America. In clear and accessible terms, Gersemann separates the economic myths from the reality. Cowboy Capitalism is a provocative and devastating rebuttal to the stereotypes promoted by the likes of Paul Krugman and Michael Moore.