January 9, 2008
The United States in a Globalized World:
How Will We Earn Our Living
Peter G. Wodtke
Chairman Planetary Fund Gibraltar
Minutes of the 14th Meeting of the 66th Year
The first meeting of the 2008 winter season was held in 60° weather at Friend Center, and was preceded by a hospitality hour. The president, Joe Giordmaine, called the meeting to order at 10:15 AM. Attendance was about 120. George Hansen led the invocation. After New Year’s greetings the minutes of the Dec. 19 meeting, prepared by Lee Neuwirth, were read in his absence by Bob Varrin.
Jack Reilly introduced his guest, Ed Weiss. Visitors were Bill Gillespie, introduced by his father Tom Gillespie, and Lanny King, introduced by her spouse Henry King.
Four new members were elected: Tom Fulmer, Paul Mott, Jack Wallace, and Keith Wheelock. The elections were conducted by Charlie Stenard, Membership Chairman, and were unanimous.
A moment of silence was observed in memory of Old Guard member David Sengstack, who passed away on December 18.
It was announced that the speaker at next week’s meeting would be Letitia W. Ufford, independent scholar and author. Her topic will be “Mehemet Ali vs. Lord Palmerston: The struggle for Syria, 1840.”
The speaker of the day, Peter Wodtke, was introduced by Henry King. His title was “The United States in a Globalized World – How will we earn our living?” Mr. Wodtke has held senior positions in global banking and finance for 50 years and is cofounder and chairman of the Planetary Fund, a Europe-based mutual fund.
Mr. Wodtke is concerned that the challenge of globalization for the United States is not one that is likely to simply work itself out. He focused on four fundamental changes that we now encounter worldwide: a far greater number of educated people; sophisticated industrial enterprises, made possible by easier technology transfer; vast centers of financial power and concentrations of wealth; and a multipolar distribution of military power in which the US is no longer dominant.
He expects us almost inevitably to face serious issues in the next few years: a decline in asset values; a reduction in the quality of employment; growing costs of aging; further decline of the dollar, with increasing prices of imports and rising cost of living; a huge national debt, increasingly held by foreign governments and leaving us vulnerable to influence; and finally a less favorable attitude toward the US in the rest of the world, possibly affecting trade. He sees all of this in a context of rising energy and commodity prices.
At the same time, he noted positive factors working in favor of the United States: the ease of setting up new businesses; flexible labor markets; ability to attract and assimilate immigrants; a long tradition of the rule of law; top universities; and a culture favoring risk taking and entrepreneurship.
Taking the serious issues and positive factors together, he believes that we may be in for some very tough years ahead, with the threat of further decline in the dollar, loss of competitiveness, and rise in debt. He sees us especially vulnerable if we have no awareness of the risks and opportunities of globalization, have no proactive strategy, are unprepared, and wait for events to unfold around us. He found it remarkable that in the recent New Hampshire political debates no candidate mentioned globalization as an issue.
He outlined his own ideas of what is needed to improve our situation. First: drastically overhaul school curricula to teach subjects that make young people more informed and competitive in a globalized world. Second: motivate young people in the family, in schools and in the community to prepare better to compete for jobs and resources with highly motivated and energetic Asians and others; Third: reduce energy use, substitute scarce, depleting energy with renewable energy, and, in particular, encourage reliance on nuclear power; Fourth: invest more in the nation: in our human resources, in our schools, in our decaying infrastructure, and stop borrowing to finance consumption.
In international affairs, Mr. Wodtke recommended the following approach: First, get our military out of Iraq, refrain from starting any more wars, and avoid tempting adversaries to test us; Second, operate multilaterally rather than unilaterally, partnering with other nations and joining world organizations (here he referred to the Kyoto accord and the International Tribunal), and in so doing regain the valuable respect and goodwill of other nations that he believes has been squandered; Third, use our influence to bring about a permanent settlement of the Israel-Palestine dispute; Fourth, elect an incoming President who understands globalization, and the risks and opportunities of this most important issue for the United States and its future.
The talk was followed by a spirited question period. The meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Joe Giordmaine
Jack Reilly introduced his guest, Ed Weiss. Visitors were Bill Gillespie, introduced by his father Tom Gillespie, and Lanny King, introduced by her spouse Henry King.
Four new members were elected: Tom Fulmer, Paul Mott, Jack Wallace, and Keith Wheelock. The elections were conducted by Charlie Stenard, Membership Chairman, and were unanimous.
A moment of silence was observed in memory of Old Guard member David Sengstack, who passed away on December 18.
It was announced that the speaker at next week’s meeting would be Letitia W. Ufford, independent scholar and author. Her topic will be “Mehemet Ali vs. Lord Palmerston: The struggle for Syria, 1840.”
The speaker of the day, Peter Wodtke, was introduced by Henry King. His title was “The United States in a Globalized World – How will we earn our living?” Mr. Wodtke has held senior positions in global banking and finance for 50 years and is cofounder and chairman of the Planetary Fund, a Europe-based mutual fund.
Mr. Wodtke is concerned that the challenge of globalization for the United States is not one that is likely to simply work itself out. He focused on four fundamental changes that we now encounter worldwide: a far greater number of educated people; sophisticated industrial enterprises, made possible by easier technology transfer; vast centers of financial power and concentrations of wealth; and a multipolar distribution of military power in which the US is no longer dominant.
He expects us almost inevitably to face serious issues in the next few years: a decline in asset values; a reduction in the quality of employment; growing costs of aging; further decline of the dollar, with increasing prices of imports and rising cost of living; a huge national debt, increasingly held by foreign governments and leaving us vulnerable to influence; and finally a less favorable attitude toward the US in the rest of the world, possibly affecting trade. He sees all of this in a context of rising energy and commodity prices.
At the same time, he noted positive factors working in favor of the United States: the ease of setting up new businesses; flexible labor markets; ability to attract and assimilate immigrants; a long tradition of the rule of law; top universities; and a culture favoring risk taking and entrepreneurship.
Taking the serious issues and positive factors together, he believes that we may be in for some very tough years ahead, with the threat of further decline in the dollar, loss of competitiveness, and rise in debt. He sees us especially vulnerable if we have no awareness of the risks and opportunities of globalization, have no proactive strategy, are unprepared, and wait for events to unfold around us. He found it remarkable that in the recent New Hampshire political debates no candidate mentioned globalization as an issue.
He outlined his own ideas of what is needed to improve our situation. First: drastically overhaul school curricula to teach subjects that make young people more informed and competitive in a globalized world. Second: motivate young people in the family, in schools and in the community to prepare better to compete for jobs and resources with highly motivated and energetic Asians and others; Third: reduce energy use, substitute scarce, depleting energy with renewable energy, and, in particular, encourage reliance on nuclear power; Fourth: invest more in the nation: in our human resources, in our schools, in our decaying infrastructure, and stop borrowing to finance consumption.
In international affairs, Mr. Wodtke recommended the following approach: First, get our military out of Iraq, refrain from starting any more wars, and avoid tempting adversaries to test us; Second, operate multilaterally rather than unilaterally, partnering with other nations and joining world organizations (here he referred to the Kyoto accord and the International Tribunal), and in so doing regain the valuable respect and goodwill of other nations that he believes has been squandered; Third, use our influence to bring about a permanent settlement of the Israel-Palestine dispute; Fourth, elect an incoming President who understands globalization, and the risks and opportunities of this most important issue for the United States and its future.
The talk was followed by a spirited question period. The meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Joe Giordmaine