Who would have thought just 18 months ago that a member of the eurozone, the most elite club of economies in Europe, could have a worse credit rating than Pakistan?

And yet this is the case for Greece today, perched on the verge of a debt restructuring; two other eurozone countries (Ireland and Portugal), meanwhile, are already in Europe's intensive care unit, receiving large bailouts.

And who would have thought that a rating agency would dare question the sacred AAA credit rating of the United States, the sole supplier of global public goods such as the international reserve currency (the dollar) and a financial system that serves as the nexus of international capital flow?

There are, of course, several custom-made reasons for these developments. But together, they speak to major realignments that are fundamentally changing the character of the global economy and how it functions. Three things in particular have had a significant influence, and they will continue to shape the world we live in for years to come.

I was hoping for a short and sweet HFR this week, as it's truncated by Thanksgiving.  No such luck.  We have a lot of ground to cover, so let's get started.

To my mind, the only reason to talk about a problem is as a prelude to searching for a serious solution to it.  That's why I'm so tired of terrified complaints over North Korea.  Here's a suggestion of how to get rid of the Norks...

...That's acting seriously regarding North Korea - and we're capable of it if we look at what's happened to the Al Qaeda-Taliban-Karzai government-Pakistan ISI cash cow of the Afghan poppy crop.

What's happened is indicated by this perversely hilarious headline in Sunday's (11/21) London Guardian, the bastion of British media Marxism:  Heroin Shortage in UK is Putting Lives at Risk....

...And you might surprised to learn that the HFR Hero of the Week is a 77 year-old rancher in Mexico.

A few months ago, I gave a talk to the U.S. Naval War College. This venerable institution is home to a student body of the future leaders of the world's navies, who preserve our freedom through strength on the seas.

Toward the end of a spirited question-and-answer session, a young officer stood and asked the final question: "What keeps you up at night?"

The simplicity of the question struck an emotive cord. In a flash, I thought of my boyhood growing up in an America where every morning I could get on my bike, and as far as the eye could see, there was President Reagan's "shining city on the hill," standing bright and tall on the horizon. The majesty, bounty and exceptionalism of America provided opportunity for all to climb that summit and share in the glow.

Yet now, for the first time since the Civil War, this God-blessed experiment is in real jeopardy of not being preserved for our children and the "huddled masses" seeking to embrace the American way.

I saw the concern in that lieutenant's eyes -- a soldier-citizen, seeking an answer. Mine was clear: "Debt out of control, entitlement spending out of control, and the loss of economic freedom and opportunity."

Why and from where had this malady come, and, most important, how can we restore our God-given national birthright?

Who is in charge of stopping the oil leak and the cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico - BP or the Obama administration? If you have a hard time answering the question, it probably is because the president has told us the "buck stops" with him and officials of his administration say they are "in charge."

Yet the administration also tells us that BP has the responsibility for stopping the leak and for the cleanup - but the company's every action has to be approved by the government!

One, among several, major reasons government agencies tend not to perform as well as private ones is because often there is little or no accountability.

BP stockholders are being severely punished because of the failure of BP's management to prevent this crisis - and you can bet many heads will roll at BP. Yet how many heads will roll in the U.S. government, which had the responsibility to make sure BP operated safely and that the beaches and marshes were protected?

At this writing, many details of the debt-ceiling deal wrangled out over the weekend remain fuzzy. One thing is clear, unfortunately: The national security of the United States is going to suffer greatly.

The Pentagon stands to be whacked by as much as half of the $1.5 trillion that an as-yet-undesignated congressional "supercommittee" is supposed to come up in "deficit reduction" by Thanksgiving.

The trouble is that more than $400 billion has already been cut from our national security investments over the past few years. Thus even if no further reductions are made in the spending allocated to defending our people and interests around the world, we will see ominous reductions in the capabilities needed to meet those vital responsibilities.

The warnings of what will befall our military and country as a result are beginning to accumulate.

Has it really been that long - twelve weeks since I last wrote the HFR (August 20)?  I spent those weeks on my 17^th trip around the world - to Central Asia, Chinese Turkestan, North Korea, Southeast Asia, Micronesia, the Caribbean, ending with celebrating 11/02 with TTPers at the Rendezvous.  It's good to be back home.

And it's good to be writing the HFR again.  I can't wait to get started - but first I've got to thank Jack Kelly for so staunchly holding down the HFR fort in my absence.  Thanks, Jack! 

And thanks to all of you who sent me a Happy Birthday message.  I really appreciate it.  I do have a great birthday - November 9^th - as it's also Ronald Reagan World Freedom Day, the day the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, named in honor of the man who won the Cold War. 

Plus it's followed by the birthday of the United States Marines - the greatest fighting force on earth - established November 10, 1775.  Semper Fi!

Then the very next day, November 11^th, is when all American patriots give thanks to our veterans for serving their country, shedding their blood and so many their lives, to protect our American birthright of freedom.

These three days, coming at the end of going around the world seeing so many other countries and cultures, formed for me such an emphatic exclamation point to the preciousness of America, to its unmatched value to peace and prosperity in the world, and to the literally critical importance as never before of defending it from enemies within our own midst who wish to destroy it.

Those enemies got knocked to the canvas last week on Nov. 2^nd - but it wasn't a knockout.  A luta continua, as the Renamo freedom fighters of Mozambique said.  The struggle continues. It always will. So here we go with this week's HFR.

Podgorica, Montenegro.  Of all the people you know, friends, family and acquaintances, who has done the most to benefit his country and/or the world?

I ask this question because here in Montenegro, there is a man who already has done much to benefit his country, and yet his real impact will not be known for many years, perhaps generations.

First, a bit about Montenegro. It is one of the world's smallest countries, with a population of 672,000 and a land area that is a little smaller than the state of Connecticut. It was the last of the former Yugoslav republics to gain independence from Serbia in 2006. Unlike the wars that resulted when other sections of Yugoslavia declared their independence, Montenegro's move toward independence was peaceful, gradual and democratic.

Perhaps nowhere else on earth is a country more blessed with so much physical beauty in such a small space. Even though the word "spectacular" is overused, there is no other way to describe the Adriatic coastline of Montenegro - where majestic mountains spring from a clear blue sea, occasionally broken by splendid deep-water bays. What a wonderful place for a true free market economy!

Black Caucus chairman Democrat Congressman Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri produced a headline-garnering sound bite following the passage in Congress of the debt ceiling compromise bill.

Even as this bill didn't by any means manage to demonstrate Congress's serious understanding of economic reality, Cleaver said that the bill amounts to "a  sugar-coated Satan sandwich" - by which he meant that it amounts to the defiance of centuries of teachings of the world's greatest religions about how one must look out for the poor and needy as one lives one's life.

Most all religions do implore us to lend those in need a hand, to help the poor and indigent. Indeed, there is no ethical system that doesn't make some room for this idea.

Yet the use to which Rep. Cleaver wants to put this idea is quite perverse. He doesn't urge us to be generous, kind, compassionate, charitable and such. No, he urges us to engage in robbery and to use the loot we obtain by this means to provide help to those the robbers believe should get some of it.

If you are an elected official, and you have to make a choice between raising taxes on your constituents or cutting the number of government employees and their salaries, what would you do?

For most of the last few decades, in most places, the politicians would just raise taxes. Now that is changing, and here is why. In recent weeks, what used to be a rare event is becoming commonplace, and that is public employees losing their jobs or having their wages and benefits cut.

Government employees are rioting in Greece (as if that does any good when the cupboard is bare) because many of them are losing their jobs. Greece, Spain, Portugal and even the Cayman Islands have announced they will be cutting public-employee wages and benefits. Many state and local governments in the United States are doing the same thing.

As most of the world's governments head toward a Greek-style meltdown, taxpayers increasingly realize that if government spending is growing faster than the economy, there is no way that tax increases can solve the problem - and most countries have about reached the limit of how much more tax revenue they are going to be able to coerce and extort from their citizens.