U.--generally experience slower growth than the U.S. with respect to measures like gross domestic product and job growth.

FORBES: New Geographer

The WEF surveys 90 different factors, including hard data such as gross domestic product and softer factors like perceived level of bribery and ethical behavior.

FORBES: Iceland J��, Venezuela No

While the Fed keeps the yield on overnight loans at 0% and investors price ten-year Treasury bonds as if prices will barely budge over the coming decade, inflation is lurking in many corners of the economy--like shipping, which accounts for 7% of gross domestic product.

FORBES: Magazine Article

In Germany, where half the gross domestic product comes from exporting companies such as Siemens, chemical makers like BASF or carmakers like Volkswagen and Porsche, hard-to-find skilled workers with training and certain qualifications are valued over temporary staff.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Tight controls like this have kept medical costs in Japan at 7% of gross domestic product, half the U.S. level.

FORBES: Bad medicine

Services, which includes things like banking, retail distribution and telecommunications, made up 64% of eurozone gross domestic product in the third quarter of 2007.

FORBES

That is UN-speak for a commitment developed nations like the United States undertook in 2002 to commit 0.7% of their gross domestic product to Official Development Assistance (ODA, also known as foreign aid).

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Clinton's soak the rich Americans

What this shows is that like his domestic agenda, Obama's foreign policy - including his national security policy - is the product of his firmly held beliefs and ideological commitments.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The perils of presidential failure

Like a good debtor, the federal government should live within its means as a function of Gross Domestic Product.

FORBES: Let's Hear it for the Speechwriters