Interesting stats from New Geography:

For a decade now U.S. city planners have obsessively pursued college graduates, adopting policies to make their cities more like dense hot spots such as New York, to which the "brains" allegedly flock. But in the past 10 years "hip and cool" places like New York have suffered high levels of domestic outmigration.

To come up with our list of the country's biggest brain magnets, we took the 52 largest metropolitan areas (all those over 1 million population) and ranked them by gains in people with college educations compared to the population over 25 years of age between 2007 and 2009, using the latest data from the American Community Survey provided by demographer Wendell Cox. It turns out that none of the top 10 gainers were large Northeastern cities, but largely Southern or Midwestern. New Orleans; Raleigh, N.C.; Austin, Texas; Nashville; Birmingham, Ala.; Kansas City, Mo.-Kan.; and Columbus, Ohio, all scored high marks. Only one California city, San Diego, made the top 10. Perennial "brain gainers" Denver, Colo., and Seattle round out the top 10.

Among those metropolitan statistical areas with populations over 5 million, the best ranking went to the Philadelphia region (No. 12 overall), arguably the least glitzy and most affordable of the large northeast cities. The San Francisco metropolitan area, long a leader in its percentage of college-educated adults, held the next spot at No. 13. On the other hand, supposed "brain" magnets Boston and Chicago managed middling rankings, right behind Charlotte, N.C., and just ahead of San Antonio, Texas. Both fell well behind such overlooked "brain gain" areas as Jacksonville, Fla.; St. Louis, Mo.-Ill.; and Indianapolis. New York, the nation's intellectual capital, ranked a mediocre 29th and Los Angeles an even worse 37th. To put in perspective, Nashville's rate of college educated migration growth was 3.7%, compared with 1.4% for New York and a measly 0.7% for Los Angeles.

The future is evenly distributed...

This is one of the core global outcomes of the smartphone wars. Within a few years, billions of people will have equivalent personal technology, the smartphone. Billions will have like access to the mobile web, the same social networks, the same job listings, access to crowdsourced funding, acces to global markets.

This will reshape the planet's economy and culture, fostering a Great Leveling of work and wealth and opportunity and access. The current Great Recession is merely getting us to that point much faster:

For once, the poor are getting richer faster than the rich are getting richer.

While most of the world’s stocks and other assets still belong to Americans and Europeans, the gap is narrowing as emerging markets grow faster and people in the advanced countries focus on paying down debt. 

But the financial crisis is having a leveling effect on global wealth. In fact, poorer regions of the world have been gaining ground since the dot-com bubble burst at the beginning of the decade.

In Eastern Europe, which has had the biggest gains, wealth has soared an average of more than 16 percent a year since in 2000. Asia (not including Japan) and Latin America are close behind with average annual gains of more than 12 percent, Allianz said. The United States and Europe have managed gains of 3 percent or less.

I've been talking about this 'great leveling" since the beginning of this site. Yes, I'm happy to see the New York Times use the word "leveling" to describe what is now taking place.

As it say on the top right, the smartphone wars will cause "the global de-construction of wealth, power, jobs, learning, opportunity, interaction, play, access, beliefs and everything everywhere forever."

It's because the smartphone is rapidly spreading throughout the world, falling in price, rising in functionality. It enables the most marginalized women, children -- nations -- to have equivalent access to the very same networks, platforms, information sources, media, data, smartmobs that you have. In other words, a level playing field; only, planet wide, which is why I commonly refer to this era as the age of the GREAT LEVELING.

Think you, or your children, are gonna outwork 6 billion desperate people? Think they can legitimately be in the top 2%? Come on. This is the harsh reality -- and the incredible opportunity -- of the world we we (very soon) face.

You need to be smart in your investments (I have a STOCK picks page and posts). You must understand that which is disappearing, forever. Thus, I post on these just about everyday. Further, you must embrace the opportunity presented by 6 billion people with equivalent tools and technologies. This is why I regularly rank technologies and business models to show you what works -- and what's dying. I have tried to distill the primary future business models into snappy slogans because I think they will be easier to remember:

1. The smartphone is the computer (corolllary: the PC is a dinosaur; what are you building for?)
2. Young brown woman child: the largest untapped market in the world could be your largest market ever!
3. Think locally scale globally (hyperlocal meets hyperglobal; conquer the local first, then you can scale it)
4. Values equal profits: want to stand out? Tell the world of your values. I can spend my money anywhere and almost certainly you can't win on price. Go with values.
5. Real-time is the only time. Make sure you deliver as much information as you can, always, in real-time.
6. Free is the new black. Yeah, this is hard. Give it away. Give it all away. Make money by sucking out all the money in another industry that your giving away has completely disrupted forever.

Good luck!

Ironic this is in Greece, no?

In the West we credit Greece as the beginning, the pillar, of our culture. And now, thousands in Greece protest, some violently, because their government won't (magically) continue to offer them work and money and benefits and program and education and retirement and vacations and services, for far less then their true cost.

I list 2016 as the end date of the destruction of everything. Yes, the end date. The Western world is trillions in debt and living on other's money, other's productivity, other's work. Make no mistake. I'm not suggesting that the US, for example, or France, say, will disappear. No. This is about the destruction of everything you know and expect and believe in and are certain of.

We are in the early days of the smartphone wars. At its resolution, in a few short years, the planet will be remade, just as at the conclusion of World War 2. The smartphone is the most powerful personal technology ever available to the masses. And it is rapidly spreading throughout the globe. Not everyone has a car. Hell, not everyone has a toilet. By the end of this decade, everyone will have a smartphone. Nearly the entire planet will have the equivalent in access and connectivity. Nearly the entire planet will be able to interact and transact and upload and download on an equal, or nearly equal basis.

This has never happened before. Never in all of human history. And, it's happening at the very time when the Western world can no longer pay its own debts! Notice the motto listed on this site, at the footer: the future is evenly distributed. From the day you were born the playing field was not level. This has shaped everything about your world. Within a few years, that unlevel playing field will be leveled. Permanently. Then who will the Greeks turn to? Who will you turn to?

As I've told you, my followers, many many times. This is not about President Obama, nor liberals, nor "conservatives." Nor even about the failed policies of Reaganomics.

This is about the Great Leveling. Within the smartphone you have, or soon will, lay the seeds of a global leveling of wealth and opportunity and connectivity and knowledge and entertainment. Everything will be destroyed. Yes, everything. (A longer post on the Great Leveling is here.)

What I term the Smart Social Mobile Web — the convergence of virtually free, infinitely scalable, globally accessible devices, databases, platforms and technologies — enables any-time, any-where collaboration between any individual, group or machine. The smart social mobile web has already begun to transform business, commerce, competition, philanthropy, learning, play, culture, wealth and power. As it (rapidly) gains force, the smart social mobile web changes everything. Nothing will be like ever before. No industry, no market, no company, no product -- no job -- will be safe. None. But you can thrive. I promise.

Does this mean we are all doomed? Of course, not. I wouldn't provide daily guidance and support if I thought that. It does mean, however, that everything you know, everything you've come to expect, will vanish. Around the world, many are embracing the opportunity presented by the destruction of the existing order and the seeds of a new economic ecosystem. In America, however, most are getting angry. And scared.

But mostly angry.

Touching on much of what I've been discussing on this site and focusing on that current anger, a great post from The Economic Collapse. I encourage you to read the entire post.

And then return. The post from Economic Collpase focuses, rightly, on our past profligacy, our past foolishness, our past short-sightedeness. Not a focus there but certainly here, however, is that *in addition to and parallel with* the havoc caused by these past misdeeds is that the very technoogy we covet, particularly smartphones, are rapidly spreading across the world and *leveling* power and opportunity.

We are losing a war on both fronts -- unable to pay for our past, not prepared (nor willing) to fight to thrive in a completely new world.

But you must.

By 2016, you will not recognize today's world. It will be gone. Forever.

I can help get us safely to the other side. Move quickly. We don't have much time.

Think the Great Leveling won't change everything?

An American company, Google, wants to make more money on ads. They create a smartphone OS and give it away for free. Thousands of miles away, on a rock in the Pacific, called Taiwan, a company decides to use that free software and their incredible manufacturing prowess, that once America had, and make smartphones.

Carriers everywhere, wanting a selection, and hoping to capture (mobile) broadband revenues start selling those smartphones. And services that never existed, that can now survive -- or flourish -- thanks to all these smartphones, like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, become worth billions. And then we can compare prices around the world at the point of presence, putting pressure on anyone that sells anything.

And giants like Microsoft, with $40 billion in cash, try desperately to crack into this new market, this new world.

But I digress...

This post is all about the clever, Apple-esque advertising that HTC uses to show off their latest smartphone. But, really, they're not showing off their smartphone, they are merely reminding you of all that you are and all that you can be.

As Paul Simon also said, "these are the days of miracle and wonder."

This site isn't really about smartphones, which I love. No, it's about helping us all get through the tremendous economic, social and political changes that will impact each of us and the planet over just the next few years.

Think of all the major transformations in history. And I don't mean, say, India liberating itself from British rule, for example. I'm talking about complete global wide tranformations, such as going from rural to urban, from agriculture to manufacturing.

At their most basic, these transformative ages increased the power and economic potential of an ever-expanding majority of people. The playing field became more level. Think of the progression from lords and serfs to a more open, democratic, economically vibrant setting. In my view, the smartphone embodies the very technology, access, connectivity and potential to shift the planet to a new and permanently transformative leveling of power and wealth and access and opportunity. I term this the 'Great Leveling.'

And we are only at the beginning of this period.

Yet by 2016 it will be fully embedded throughout the world, altering media and business and markets and commerce and interactivity and power and mobility and wealth. In just six short years we will have a difficult time recognizing today's reality. The smartphone is the computer. It is the umifying device of our work and play and access and information. And in 6 years a billion people will have one. Probably more than a billion people, in fact.

Ultimately, this is a good thing. The history of humanity has been the expansion of opportunity and potential and a leveling of power and potential across all people. Ultimately, this Great Leveling gets us closer to a more open, intelligent, peaceful and bountiful world -- think the Federation of Planets from Star Trek. It's just the in-between that's the real bitch. Which is why there are those days when I open up a news app on my iPhone and merely glance at the headlines and want to stay indoors, forever:

• Coal mine blast kills 25
• 7 explosions kill dozens in Baghdad
• 72 police killed in Indian Maoist assault

It goes on like that...