Stephan:   Today's edition is dedicated to a strongly emerging trend that I have touched on before, but which I believe is now reaching critical mass -- 3-D printing. This technology is going to change our world even more profoundly than the rise of the internet, because the internet was an additive trend, and 3-D printing is a subtractive one. That is the internet allowed us to do the things we did better and more efficiently. It eliminated the need for some things, like mimeograph machines and carbon paper but was essentially additive. In contrast, 3-D printing is going to eliminate the need for whole sectors of human history, and its geopolitical implications are almost more profound than I can describe. Factories involving mass production are going to disappear. Nations like China that depend on manufacturing are going to be devastated, unless they plan very carefully. Shipping industries, box makers, machine makers, dealers of many goods, will be rendered redundant, radically changing labor activities. Whole structures of our economy will crash. 3-D printing is going to allow everything to be made to custom order, whether it is a new ear, or a new transmission. It will also play a major role in the transition from carbon to noncarbon energy. Those nations which adapt quickly will thrive, those that don't will fall further and further behind. -- Stephan