This is an amusing juxtaposition.

Since someone mentioned credit cards, I figured it fair to suggest the viewing of the following things I've spent some recent time on. From my web page:

It's a Lorenz curve, roughly from Aiyagari (1994).
It's fake data, paramaterized roughly from the data. The blue is a AR1 process of growth, the red dots a Markov approximation of growth.

A more linked-through version can be found on my webpage.

This isn't geopolitics, but I think the majority of the readers here may find it interesting...
Burrito Bros. now takes credit cards! Which means no more spare change for bums to beg for.
Oh, also, after I turn 21, I may start a Gainesville Dining Guide on the site, if Matt's offer for space still stands.

China is exporting its manufacturing jobs overseas:
Sometimes when it was already very late at night, the figures of busy American managerial personnel still could be seen in the workshops. July 4 is the National Day of the United States, on which the whole nation is on holiday.

But on the afternoon of the National Day last year, an American workshop chief took the initiative to go to the factory to examine equipment and raw materials, making preparations for next day's production. "This simply could not occur in other American enterprises".

Indeed, it truly is the case that when East meets West, the laughs shift into high gear!