THIS IS A GOOD DAY FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Good news on Friday:

Ambassador Caroline Kennedy arrived in Tokyo yesterday.  She is the first female to represent the USA in Japan.

America is #1, according to Josef Joffe in his book:  The Myth of America's Decline.  Sure:

1. There was Sputnik:  but the Soviet Union crashed and burned and Russia is getting old.
2. The embarrassment of the Vietnam War:  but the domino theory worked, and we stopped the expansion of communism.  Interestingly enough, I asked various citizens of Vietnam when I visited, which country do you like and hate the most.  The results for like:
1. #1  USA
2. #2  Japan
3. #3  Russia
4. #4  China
3. The Rising Sun and Japan as #1 dominated in the early 1990's.  Today, Japan is barely surviving, with Fukushima to trouble the country for many decades to come. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, for the third straight day, broke its all-time record, up 85 to 15,962.

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Alas, all is not so good for the Philippines.  The damage of Super Typhoon Haiyan (the 30th named storm in the West Pacific--THE STRONGEST CYCLONIC OCEAN EVENT TO EVER MAKE LANDFALL!!!) has been estimated to be around $15 billion. 

If it's possible to look at this in a non-negative way:

1. That $15 billion sum is not as much as Hurricane Katrina's $125 billion in 2005, nor Hurricane Sandy's $68 billion last year.
2. The 1970 Bhola Cyclone striking East Pakistan resulted in up to half a million deaths.  This was a Category 3.
3. Super Typhoon Nina in 1975 killed more than 100,000, mostly in China.
4. The final death toll predicted a week ago as 10,000, rests at 3,621, and should not reach five digits.

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