Articles by Jason Brown

America’s greatest economic rival in the foreseeable future is the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Since entering the global economy in 1978, China’s economy has an annual growth rate of 10.4 percent while the U.S. economy averages 2.7 percent. As a result of this growth, economists predict that the gross domestic product (GDP) of China will exceed America’s by 2017. This will crown China as the world’s largest economy before the end of the decade. Of course, China’s ascension to the world’s...

This year has been turbulent with gun related homicides; highlighted by the killing sprees in Aurora, Colorado, the Sikh temple in Wisconsin, and now the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. However, arguably more striking is the staggering number of shootings in Chicago this year, which is on course to reach 3,000 before the year’s end. Yet, reforming the nation’s gun policy is considered a taboo topic in Washington, DC. This was exampled during this year’s second presidential ...

Tuesday marks a significant event for the US military. The first F-35 Lightning II, the product of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program that started in 1996, will be placed into service after an inauguration ceremony at a Marine Corps Air Station in Arizona. This will be the first of sixteen F-35s assigned to a newly minted Marine fighter squadron, scheduled to be in full operation next year. Of course, these new fifth-generation fighters are not cheap; each costing around $240 million. These...

Tuesday marks a significant event for the US military. The first F-35 Lightning II, the product of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program that started in 1996, will be placed into service after an inauguration ceremony at a Marine Corps Air Station in Arizona. This will be the first of sixteen F-35s assigned to a newly minted Marine fighter squadron, scheduled to be in full operation next year. Of course, these new fifth-generation fighters are not cheap; each costing around $240 million. These...

Photo: Newscom President Obama deviated from his campaign’s talking points during an interview with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski at a campaign rally in New Hampshire last Saturday in order to address some of his ‘big government’ criticisms. The president told the Morning Joe hosts that if he gets re-elected he wants to reduce the size of the federal government by consolidating nine federal agencies. The president stated that this would promote a leaner cabinet that would fall un...

Photo: Jason Reed/Reuters The presidential debate last Monday night featured a pungent performance by President Obama. The candidates went back and forth on defining the Obama Doctrine, although the president dominated the narrative with witty zingers and educated responses, which forced Romney to stay on the defense. Aside from the entertaining rhetoric, the biggest takeaway from the debate was the lack of substance and contrast between the two candidates. Obama missed an opportunity to illus...

Photo: Wikimedia / Jeblad In 2005, Thomas Friedman’s book “The World is Flat” opened the eyes of many to this bubbling phenomenon we now call globalization. The premise of Friedman’s book was that the transformative political changes of the late 70s and 80s, mixed with the major leaps in technology throughout the 90s, analogously developed a recipe that ‘flattened’ the world. In other words, it leveled the economic playing field for the 21st century. Friedman’s thesis is that these metamorphic ...

Photo: Wikimedia / Gage There is no doubt that Mitt Romney's campaign over the past few weeks has been disastrous.  Since the Democratic convention, weekly polls in key swing states have reflected that Romney has been steadily falling behind the president. Romney's troubles have been caused by a combination of several factors: bad luck with the viral 47% video, his response to the Libya incident, and scathing criticisms from even the most conservative media pundits, including the Wall Street J...