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IBM has an interesting new report out called "Economic Development in a Rubik's Cube World."  The abstract states:

"The world is currently changing at an increasingly rapid pace, driven by six “megatrends”: deepening globalization, large scale population trends, accelerating technological progress, the "Omni Consumer," the corporate social responsibility imperative and growing political uncertainty. These trends are forcing companies to innovate and refine their fundamental business models. Investment promotion agencies and economic development organizations must not only deal with all those changes, but also with more intense competition. To do so, they need to understand their clients, environment and competitors, and respond effectively."

Here is the study homepage and the full report (pdf).

Last night, C-Span had an excellent program with Robert , producer of 2 Million Minutes, a documentary about high schools in the U.S., China and India. The program gives you the "back story" for this important program. 2 Million Minutes refers to the amount of time that a high school student spends in high school.

The program documents the different level of expectations for young people in the U.S. China, and India.

You can watch the C-Span program here.

You can order the video 2 Million Minutes here.

Here's a useful report released by the European Union on globalization. It provides good background on how to think about the major changes sweeping the global economy. One important insight: The U.S. is generally responding more slowly to these pressures. 

"The point of this report was to demystify globalisation," said Mark Spelman, chairman of Amcham EU and head of strategy at Accenture, the consultant. "Europeans have reaped substantial and tangible benefits from globalisation but there is scope to gain even more."

Daniel Hamilton and Joseph Quinlan, the study's authors from Johns Hopkins University, found several EU countries had adapted better than the US to globalisation.

Read more here.

Download the report here.