Israeli Economy Surging: Tel Aviv stock exchange hits record high

The Israeli economy and stock market are surging, despite growing regional tension and instability. On Wednesday, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange closed one point below a record high. Today, the market formally hit a new record and is up 130% since November 2008 and 11% for the year.  ”The Israeli economy grew by 7.8% in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to figures released Sunday by the Central Bureau of Statistics,” reports Ynet News. “This is … Read More

via Joel C. Rosenberg’s Blog

Could Israel become oil production leader?

With second largest oil shale deposits in the world, some believe it’s very possible.

 

According to Dr. Vinegar, Israel has the second-biggest oil shale deposits in the world, outside the United States. “We estimate that there are the equivalent of 250 billion barrels of oil there. To put that in context, there are proven reserves of 260 billion barrels of oil in Saudi Arabia.” he told The Times.

The punch line to a joke that’s been told by generation of Jews soon will need to be changed.

“Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!” This joke was made famous by Golda Meir, the former prime minister of Israel, and for many years held a lot of truth. The lack of oil and natural gas is seen as one of the main reasons Israel has become one of the world’s leaders in technology, green energy and health science.

But with the recent findings of the Tamar and Leviathan natural gas reserves off its waters, Israel has a future as an energy independent country. By why stop there? Some believe that Israel could become one of the world’s leading oil producers.

Such is the plan of Harold Vinegar and his colleagues. Dr. Vinegar, the former chief scientist of Royal Dutch Shell, and current chief scientist at Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI), believes that with Israel’s oil shale deposits, this could be reality.

IEI is working on an ambitious project to extract oil and natural gas from oil shale from a 238 sq km area off the Shfela Basin, southwest of Jerusalem.

As the price of conventional sources of petroleum has risen, oil shale has gained attention as an energy source, and as a way for some areas to secure independence from external suppliers of energy. However, oil shale mining does raise a number of environmental concerns due to it being very water intensive, and a high producer of greenhouse gas emissions. China has a well established oil shale industry and Brazil, Germany and Russia also utilize oil shale.

IEI claims that its technique will be cleaner than those currently being used because the oil will be separated from the shale rock up to 300 meters beneath the ground, therefore greatly minimizing the amount of water being consumed.

According to Dr. Vinegar, Israel has the second-biggest oil shale deposits in the world, outside the United States. “We estimate that there are the equivalent of 250 billion barrels of oil there. To put that in context, there are proven reserves of 260 billion barrels of oil in Saudi Arabia.” he told The Times.

Once operational, IEI estimates that the cost of production of shale oil would be between $34-40 per barrel. This would make it comparable to the current price of $30-40 per barrel for deepwater oilfield and cheaper than Canadian sand oil and crude oil extracted from the Arctic.

The expectations of Tamar and Leviathan have already given Israel a very positive outlook. Should IEI’s claims turn to reality, Israel would become one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

From ynetnews.

Violent Seismic Activity Tearing Africa in Two

Quote:
Oxford University’s David Ferguson predicts a considerable increase in volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in the [north eastern Africa] region over the next decade. They will, he says, “become of increasingly large magnitude.”

High-Speed Geology : Violent Seismic Activity Tearing Africa in Two

By Axel Bojanowski

Photo Gallery: 22 Photos

University of Bristol / Lorraine Field

The fissures began appearing years ago. But in recent months, seismic activity has accelerated in northeastern Africa as the continent breaks apart in slow motion. Researchers say that lava in the region is consistent with magma normally seen on the sea floor — and that water will ultimately cover the desert.

Cynthia Ebinger, a geologist from the University of Rochester in New York, could hardly believe what the caller from the deserts of Ethiopia was saying. It was an employee at a mineralogy company — and he reported that the famous Erta Ale volcano in northeastern Ethiopia was erupting. Ebinger, who has studied the volcano for years, was taken aback. The volcano’s crater had always been filled with a bubbling soup of silver-black lava, but it had been decades since its last eruption.

The call came last November. And Ebinger immediately flew to Ethiopia with some fellow researchers. “The volcano was bubbling over; flaming-red lava was shooting up into the sky,” Ebinger told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

The earth is in upheaval in northeastern Africa, and the region is changing quickly. The desert floor is quaking and splitting open, volcanoes are boiling over, and seawaters are encroaching upon the land. Africa, researchers are certain, is splitting apart at a rate rarely seen in geology.

The first fracture appeared millions of years ago, resulting in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The second fracture, stretching south from Ethiopia to Mozambique, is known as the Great Rift Valley, and it is lined with several volcanoes. Millions of years from now, it too will be filled with seawater.

Could Go Quickly

But in the Danakil Depression, in the northern part of the valley, the ocean could arrive much sooner. There, low, 25 meter (82 foot) hills are the only thing holding back the waters of the Red Sea. The land behind them has already dropped dozens of meters from previous levels and white salt deposits on the desert floor testify to past encroachments of the sea. But lava soon choked off its access.

For now, no one can really say when the sea will finally flood the desert. But when it does, it could go quickly. “The hills could sink in a matter of days,” Tim Wright, a fellow at the University of Leeds’ School of Earth and Environment, said at a recent conference hosted by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco.

In the last five years, the geologic transformation of northeastern Africa has “accelerated dramatically,” says Wright. Indeed, the process is going much faster than many had anticipated. In recent years, geologists had measured just a few millimeters of movement each year. “But now the earth is opening up by the meter,” says Loraine Field, a scholar at the University of Bristol who also attended the conference.

Earth tremors cause deep fissures to form in the desert floor and the ground in East Africa is shattering like broken glass. Researchers in the Gulf of Tadjoura, which juts into Djibouti from the Gulf of Aden, have recently registered a barrage of seismic shocks. “The quakes are happening on the mid-ocean ridge,” Ebinger reports.

Shifting Tectonic Plates

Lava gushes out of fissures in these underwater mountain ranges to constantly create new earth crust — when it hardens, it becomes part of the sea floor. As the magma surges upward, it spreads the ocean floor on both sides, shifting tectonic plates and causing tremors.

In recent months, the quaking in the Gulf of Tadjoura has been getting closer and closer to the coastline. As Ebinger explains, the splitting of the ocean floor will gradually extend to dry land. This is already the case along some fault lines in the Ethiopian desert, creating a geological spectacle that can otherwise only be witnessed deep below the surface of the ocean.

Even the pattern of earthquakes supports the conclusion that the desert landscape is transforming into a deep seafloor, according to a recent article in the Journal of Geophysical Research published by Zhaohui Yang and Wang-Ping Chen, two geologists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The researchers have recorded several strong earthquakes at a shallow depth in northeastern Africa similar to ones that are otherwise only seen on mid-ocean ridges far out at sea.

In recent months, researchers have also recorded an up-tick in volcanic activity. Indeed, geologists have discovered volcanic eruptions near the earth’s surface at 22 places in the Afar Triangle in northeastern Africa. Magma has caused fissures up to eight meters (26 feet) wide to open up in the ground, reports Derek Keir from the University of Leeds. While most of the magma remains beneath the surface, in places like Erta Ale it has made its way above ground.

An Ocean Without Water

Scientists have also noted that the kind of magma bubbling up in the region is the type otherwise only seen spewing forth from mid-ocean ridges deep below the water’s surface. One of its signature characteristics is a low proportion of silicic acid. The magma coming out of Erta Ale has the same chemical composition as the kind that emerges from deep-sea volcanoes. The entire region increasingly resembles an ocean floor — one without water.

The new burst in activity began in 2005, when a 60-kilometer-long fissure suddenly formed in the Afar Depression. Since then, roughly 3.5 cubic kilometers of magma have gushed forth, according to Tim Wright — enough to cover the entire area of London to an average person’s height.

From a geological perspective, the speed with which the magma is pushing forth is astonishing. It has been channeling its way through the rock below the earth’s surface at speeds of up to 30 meters per minute, reports Eric Jacques from the Institute of Earth Physics of Paris. Satellite measurements attest to the consequences: In one 200-kilometer stretch welling up with magma, the ground looks like asphalt on a hot summer day. Magma is also pooling up under the Dabbahu Volcano in northern Ethiopia, Lorraine Field reported in San Francisco.

Continuing to Expand

The satellite data has also shown that a much larger area has been scarred by fissures than previously assumed, says Keir. Subterranean currents of magma are also causing ground temperatures to spike in eastern Egypt, a team of geologists from Egypt’s National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics recently reported in Seismological Research Letters. At the AGU conference, Columbia University’s James Gaherty reported that magma eruptions have ripped a 17-kilometer gash into the desert floor in the northern part of Malawi and that the lateral pressure they have exerted has even lifted the surrounding earth up to 50 centimeters (20 inches) in places.

The most violent upsurge of magma in recent years, though, happened in an unexpected place. In May 2009, a subterranean volcano erupted in Saudi Arabia. A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 accompanied by tens of thousands of milder tremors forced 30,000 to seek shelter. Magma spewed out of the ground in an area about the size of Berlin and Hamburg combined, Sigurjon Jonsson from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology reported at the AGU meeting. The fact that the eruption took place almost 200 kilometers (124 miles) away from the fault line in North Africa “surprised all of us,” says Cynthia Ebinger. And the world’s largest geological construction site continues to expand. Loraine Field confirms that more and more magna is pushing its way to the earth’s surface, adding that: “The magma chamber is reloading.”

Oxford University’s David Ferguson predicts a considerable increase in volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in the region over the next decade. They will, he says, “become of increasingly large magnitude.”

Source article here.

Child Brides Worldwide

There is no need for commentary. The pictures & videos tell this story…

Mass Marriage in Gaza:

Debate on child marriage in Yemen:

Extracts from two videos below:

Pro-Hamas Broadcast:

Non-translated video footage:

Experts: ‘Big One’ could come soon

It seems like earthquakes may be increasing. That would be the alternative way to say “more frequent than previously thought”… assuming that previous calculations may have been correct.

“There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.” – Mark 13:8

Experts: ‘Big One’ could come soon…

2010-08-21 11:01

Los Angeles – Strong earthquakes along the San Andreas fault in southern California are more frequent than previously thought, so the dreaded “Big One” could be just around the corner, US researchers said Friday in a study.

University of California at Irvine and Arizona State University scientists examined the geological record stretching back 700 years along the fault line 160km northwest of Los Angeles.

They found that strong earthquakes – between 6.5 and 7.9 magnitude – shook the area every 45-144 years, instead of the previously established 250-400 years.

Since the last big 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck southern California in 1857, or 153 years ago, scientists believe the next “Big One” could happen at any time.

The scientists on Friday provided an abstract of their study, which will be published in full in the September 1 issue of the magazine Geology.

“What we know is for the last 700 years, earthquakes on the southern San Andreas fault have been much more frequent than everyone thought,” said the study’s lead author Sinan Akciz.

“Data presented here contradict previously published reports,” he added.

People urged to take precautions

With 37 million people living in southern California, chiefly in the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego and Anaheim, a major earthquake could kill between 2 000 and 50 000 people and cause billions of dollars in damage, scientists said.

UCI seismologist Lisa Grant Ludwig, the study’s chief investigator, said people in the area should already be taking precautions.

“There are storm clouds gathered on the horizon. Does that mean it’s definitely going to rain? No, but when you have that many clouds, you think, I’m going to take my umbrella with me today.’ That’s what this research does: It gives us a chance to prepare,” she said.

For individuals, that means having ample water and other supplies on hand, safeguarding possessions in advance, and establishing family emergency plans.

For regulators, Ludwig advocates new policies requiring earthquake risk signs on unsafe buildings and forcing inspectors in home-sale transactions to disclose degrees of risk.

Some things, she added however, remain unpredictable, especially Los Angeles’ troublesome highway grid, which in the best of times gets hopelessly choked in traffic.

Ludwig said the new data “puts the exclamation point” on the need for state residents and policymakers to be prepared.

- AFP

Bilderberg Discusses “Global Cooling”…

From www.bilderbergmeetings.org:

“The 58th Bilderberg Meeting will be held in Sitges, Spain 3 – 6 June 2010. The Conference will deal mainly with Financial Reform, Security, Cyber Technology, Energy, Pakistan, Afghanistan, World Food Problem, Global Cooling, Social Networking, Medical Science, EU-US relations. Approximately 130 participants will attend of whom about two-thirds come from Europe and the balance from North America. About one-third is from government and politics, and two-thirds are from finance, industry, labor, education, and communications.”

The ‘reach of influence’ these meetings have can be judged by the attendance list:

List of Participants

BEL	Davignon, Etienne	Vice Chairman, Suez-Tractebel
DEU	Ackermann, Josef	Chairman of the Management Board and the Group Executive Committee, Deutsche Bank AG
GBR	Agius, Marcus	Chairman, Barclays Bank PLC
ESP	Alierta, César	Chairman and CEO, Telefónica
INT	Almunia, Joaquín	Commissioner, European Commission
USA	Altman, Roger C.	Chairman, Evercore Partners Inc.
USA	Arrison, Sonia	Author and policy analyst
SWE	Bäckström, Urban	Director General, Confederation of Swedish Enterprise
PRT	Balsemão, Francisco Pinto	Chairman and CEO, IMPRESA, S.G.P.S.; Former Prime Minister
ITA	Bernabè, Franco	CEO, Telecom Italia S.p.A.
SWE	Bildt, Carl	Minister of Foreign Affairs
FIN	Blåfield, Antti	Senior Editorial Writer, Helsingin Sanomat
ESP	Botín, Ana P.	Executive Chairman, Banesto
NOR	Brandtzæg, Svein Richard	CEO, Norsk Hydro ASA
AUT	Bronner, Oscar	Publisher and Editor, Der Standard
TUR	Çakir, Ruşen	Journalist
CAN	Campbell, Gordon	Premier of British Columbia
ESP	Carvajal Urquijo, Jaime	Managing Director, Advent International
FRA	Castries, Henri de	Chairman of the Management Board and CEO, AXA
ESP	Cebrián, Juan Luis	CEO, PRISA
ESP	Cisneros, Gustavo A.	Chairman and CEO, Cisneros Group of Companies
CAN	Clark, W. Edmund	President and CEO, TD Bank Financial Group
USA	Collins, Timothy C.	Senior Managing Director and CEO, Ripplewood Holdings, LLC
ITA	Conti, Fulvio	CEO and General Manager, Enel SpA
GRC	David, George A.	Chairman, Coca-Cola H.B.C. S.A.
DNK	Eldrup, Anders	CEO, DONG Energy
ITA	Elkann, John	Chairman, Fiat S.p.A.
DEU	Enders, Thomas	CEO, Airbus SAS
ESP	Entrecanales, José M.	Chairman, Acciona
DNK	Federspiel, Ulrik	Vice President Global Affairs, Haldor Topsøe A/S
USA	Feldstein, Martin S.	George F. Baker Professor of Economics, Harvard University
USA	Ferguson, Niall	Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University
AUT	Fischer, Heinz	Federal President
IRL	Gallagher, Paul	Attorney General
USA	Gates, William H.	Co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Chairman, Microsoft Corporation
USA	Gordon, Philip H.	Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs
USA	Graham, Donald E.	Chairman and CEO, The Washington Post Company
INT	Gucht, Karel de	Commissioner, European Commission
TUR	Gürel, Z. Damla	Special Adviser to the President on EU Affairs
NLD	Halberstadt, Victor	Professor of Economics, Leiden University; Former Honorary Secretary General of Bilderberg Meetings
USA	Holbrooke, Richard C.	Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
NLD	Hommen, Jan H.M.	Chairman, ING Group
USA	Hormats, Robert D.	Under Secretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs
BEL	Huyghebaert, Jan	Chairman of the Board of Directors, KBC Group
USA	Johnson, James A.	Vice Chairman, Perseus, LLC
FIN	Katainen, Jyrki	Minister of Finance
USA	Keane, John M.	Senior Partner, SCP Partners
GBR	Kerr, John	Member, House of Lords; Deputy Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc.
USA	Kissinger, Henry A.	Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc.
USA	Kleinfeld, Klaus	Chairman and CEO, Alcoa
TUR	Koç, Mustafa V.	Chairman, Koç Holding A.Ş.
USA	Kravis, Henry R.	Founding Partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
USA	Kravis, Marie-Josée	Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, Inc.
INT	Kroes, Neelie	Commissioner, European Commission
USA	Lander, Eric S.	President and Director, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT
FRA	Lauvergeon, Anne	Chairman of the Executive Board, AREVA
ESP	León Gross, Bernardino	Secretary General, Office of the Prime Minister
DEU	Löscher, Peter	Chairman of the Board of Management, Siemens AG
NOR	Magnus, Birger	Chairman, Storebrand ASA
CAN	Mansbridge, Peter	Chief Correspondent, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
USA	Mathews, Jessica T.	President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
CAN	McKenna, Frank	Deputy Chair, TD Bank Financial Group
GBR	Micklethwait, John	Editor-in-Chief, The Economist
FRA	Montbrial, Thierry de	President, French Institute for International Relations
ITA	Monti, Mario	President, Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi
INT	Moyo, Dambisa F.	Economist and Author
USA	Mundie, Craig J.	Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft Corporation
NOR	Myklebust, Egil	Former Chairman of the Board of Directors SAS, Norsk Hydro ASA
USA	Naím, Moisés	Editor-in-Chief, Foreign Policy
NLD	Netherlands, H.M. the Queen of the
ESP	Nin Génova, Juan María	President and CEO, La Caixa
DNK	Nyrup Rasmussen, Poul	Former Prime Minister
GBR	Oldham, John	National Clinical Lead for Quality and Productivity
FIN	Ollila, Jorma	Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc
USA	Orszag, Peter R.	Director, Office of Management and Budget
TUR	Özilhan, Tuncay	Chairman, Anadolu Group
ITA	Padoa-Schioppa, Tommaso	Former Minister of Finance; President of Notre Europe
GRC	Papaconstantinou, George	Minister of Finance
USA	Parker, Sean	Managing Partner, Founders Fund
USA	Pearl, Frank H.	Chairman and CEO, Perseus, LLC
USA	Perle, Richard N.	Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
ESP	Polanco, Ignacio	Chairman, Grupo PRISA
CAN	Prichard, J. Robert S.	President and CEO, Metrolinx
FRA	Ramanantsoa, Bernard	Dean, HEC Paris Group
PRT	Rangel, Paulo	Member, European Parliament
CAN	Reisman, Heather M.	Chair and CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc.
SWE	Renström, Lars	President and CEO, Alfa Laval
NLD	Rinnooy Kan, Alexander H.G.	Chairman, Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER)
ITA	Rocca, Gianfelice	Chairman, Techint
ESP	Rodriguez Inciarte, Matías	Executive Vice Chairman, Grupo Santander
USA	Rose, Charlie	Producer, Rose Communications
USA	Rubin, Robert E.	Co-Chairman, Council on Foreign Relations; Former Secretary of the Treasury
TUR	Sabanci Dinçer, Suzan	Chairman, Akbank
ITA	Scaroni, Paolo	CEO, Eni S.p.A.
USA	Schmidt, Eric	CEO and Chairman of the Board, Google
AUT	Scholten, Rudolf	Member of the Board of Executive Directors, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG
DEU	Scholz, Olaf	Vice Chairman, SPD
INT	Sheeran, Josette	Executive Director, United Nations World Food Programme
INT	Solana Madariaga, Javier	Former Secretary General, Council of the European Union
ESP	Spain, H.M. the Queen of
USA	Steinberg, James B.	Deputy Secretary of State
INT	Stigson, Björn	President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
USA	Summers, Lawrence H.	Director, National Economic Council
IRL	Sutherland, Peter D.	Chairman, Goldman Sachs International
GBR	Taylor, J. Martin	Chairman, Syngenta International AG
PRT	Teixeira dos Santos, Fernando	Minister of State and Finance
USA	Thiel, Peter A.	President, Clarium Capital Management, LLC
GRC	Tsoukalis, Loukas	President, ELIAMEP
INT	Tumpel-Gugerell, Gertrude	Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank
USA	Varney, Christine A.	Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust
CHE	Vasella, Daniel L.	Chairman, Novartis AG
USA	Volcker, Paul A.	Chairman, Economic Recovery Advisory Board
CHE	Voser, Peter	CEO, Royal Dutch Shell plc
FIN	Wahlroos, Björn	Chairman, Sampo plc
CHE	Waldvogel, Francis A.	Chairman, Novartis Venture Fund
SWE	Wallenberg, Jacob	Chairman, Investor AB
NLD	Wellink, Nout	President, De Nederlandsche Bank
USA	West, F.J. Bing	Author
GBR	Williams, Shirley	Member, House of Lords
USA	Wolfensohn, James D.	Chairman, Wolfensohn & Company, LLC
ESP	Zapatero, José Luis Rodríguez	Prime Minister
DEU	Zetsche, Dieter	Chairman, Daimler AG
INT	Zoellick, Robert B.	President, The World Bank Group

Vatican : “Priest pedophilia not linked to celibacy”

(Reuters) – It is homosexuality, not celibacy, that is linked to pedophilia, the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said on Monday, seeking to defuse the sex scandal that has battered the Roman Catholic Church.

On a visit to Chile, Bertone, dubbed the Deputy Pope, also said Pope Benedict would soon take more surprising initiatives regarding the sex abuse scandal but did not elaborate.

“Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and pedophilia but many others have shown, I have recently been told, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia,” he told a news conference in Santiago.

“This pathology is one that touches all categories of people, and priests to a lesser degree in percentage terms,” he said. “The behavior of the priests in this case, the negative behavior, is very serious, is scandalous.”

Bertone’s visit to Chile comes as the Catholic Church has been buffeted by scandals concerning sexual abuse of children — most of them boys — by priests. There also have been allegations of cover-ups and even that the Pope mishandled cases when he was a bishop in Germany and a Vatican official before his election in 2005.

Original article at Reuters.

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth… (Gen 1:28)

Did you know that there is good evidence of a surprising (to many) reason why the world economy is under increasing pressure? Overpopulation? Not quite. Urbanization maybe yes, but, in fact, there are plainly less consumers & tax payers being born… A good idea in an ‘overcrowded’ world? Think again.

About The Film

Demographic Winter: the decline of the human family explores the severe economic and social consequences of family decline and plummeting birthrates worldwide. In Demographic Winter scholars from many backgrounds give economic, social scientific, demographic and historic context to population decline and the impact families have on the strength and stability of society. The film’s fast moving and artistic style highlights the research of economists (including a Nobel laureate), demographers, social scientists, and authors in an impactful way.
These experts show how a strong foundation of human capital is needed by every economy. The development of this human capital is more dependent upon the families from which they are derived than by any other institution. From their research these scholars illustrate the necessity of building strong moral and social capital, best accomplished within the family setting, as a basis for this human capital.
They also illuminate how the support of family is crucial in the development of skills and education. Stable societies and economies are centered upon these vital elements. Demographic Winter reveals how, popular myth notwithstanding, birthrates have been falling dramatically over the past 40 years and how much of the world now has birthrates well below replacement levels. Some countries have begun to depopulate, and will soon begin to feel the crunch of a contracting economy. The population of the world, these experts tell us, particularly in developing countries, is aging. The baby-boom generation is reaching retirement and will need to be supported by the generations that succeeded them, all of which have had fewer and fewer children. This means fewer and fewer workers paying into the social security, medical and welfare systems of the world. Economies will be strained and governments will slow bleed as relative production dwindles and tax revenues decrease.
The film exposes how many developed countries with below replacement fertility have looked to immigration to help bolster the diminished labour force. This increased immigration, almost exclusively coming from developing countries, has begun to change the social and political landscape in the host countries. This out-migration has begun to drain labour from developing countries, stunting the growth of their economies. What’s more, these experts tell us, because it so often means the separation of family members, usually the father, it is causing increased social problems and birthrates falling at a faster rate than did those for the developed countries.
Demographic Winter: the decline of the human family is the first of two films addressing this topic. This first film features interviews with many distinguished scholars including Gary Becker, Ph.D, University of Chicago, Nobel Prize in Economics, 1992; Phil Longman, Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation and author of “The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity And What to Do About It”; Nicholas Eberstadt, Ph.D., political economy and government, Harvard University, Henry Wendt Scholar in Political Economy, American Enterprise Institute; Victor Medkov, Professor, Department of Sociology, Moscow Lomonosov State University, co-author of “Population: An Encyclopedic Dictionary”; Steve Nock, Ph.D, Commonwealth Professor, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Marriage Matters project, University of Virginia; Kay Hymowitz, William E. Simon Fellow, Manhattan Institute, Contributing Editor, City Journal; Linda Waite, Ph.D. Lucy Flower Professor in Urban Sociology, University of Chicago, Director, Center on Aging at N.O.R.C.; Alban d’Entremont, Ph.D, Chair, Dept of Geography, Professor Economic and Human Geography, University of Navarra, Spain.

Note that the author of this blog doesn’t benefit in any way from these DVD sales.