This has the perverse result that if the country gets richer, the poverty rate can still rise, as long as incomes at the top and in the middle rise faster than those at the bottom.
While selling to 106 different countries, the biggest market remained North America, but with Africa in a strongly-growing second place, and sales of expertise to the Middle East on the rise as well.
Although there was no single cause for this European Spring, a variety of radical changes in society, from technology to food shortages to the beginnings of the rise of a middle class, seemed to coalesce into widespread revolt and dissatisfaction with ruling governments.
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Similarly, the Arab Spring seems to have been triggered by another series of radical changes in society, from technology and iPhones to food shortages to the beginnings of the rise of a middle class in these societies, that have coalesced into widespread revolt and dissatisfaction with ruling governments.
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For example, the rise of coffee in the Islamic world in the early Middle Ages is what led to the rise of coffeehouse culture in those countries, which fueled the intellectual ferment that led to the Islamic golden age.
What we have not seen is any specificity from the Republicans or any indication from the leadership that they're going to accept the basic principle that wealthier Americans are going to pay higher rates, rates that were in place under the Clinton administration when this economy grew rapidly, the middle class saw its incomes rise and the wealthy did very well, to boot.
Why indeed have they dealt with autocrats and kings across the Middle East only to see the people rise up?
The fact is, while a lot of work remains, especially to rebuild a strong middle class and offer working folks new pathways to rise into the middle class, our economy is better positioned for tomorrow than most of those other countries hit by the financial crisis.
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For several oil producers, notably in the Middle East and Africa, a rise in the oil price could help.
But some economists argue that Brazil is the beneficiary of a structural shift, in which the industrialisation of Asia and the rise of a new middle class in the developing world will keep commodity prices high.
Perhaps his biggest policy success has been South Africa's rapid economic growth since the end of apartheid and the rise of a black middle class - but to the anger of many, wealth is more unevenly distributed than ever before.
While in developed countries the aging population and an increasing rate of chronic diseases among the older population will continue to drive demand for nutrition products, the rise of the middle class is likely to boost sales in emerging markets.
That pretty well sums up the Cash Strapped Consumer aspect of my Rise and Fall of the Middle Class PowerTrend.
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In China, the rise of the middle class is shifting the economy more towards consumption.
As these women rise into the middle class, the men stay in the lower class, becoming less compatible.
Gas prices and interest rates, which had been microscopic for years, started to rise around the middle of 2005.
It would inflame the Middle East and make tensions rise everywhere, including the two places where the U.S. has a huge stake and tens of thousands of troops -- Afghanistan and Iraq -- and it would put the moderate Arabs on the defense.
They knew enough to understand how hard they could push without breaking things (the rate of return they demanded would soon ossify into a ritualized expectation of stable growth rates, a big enabler of the rise of a middle class that could basically withdraw from the risk frontier).
Those increases have pressured what disposable income Americans have had, forcing them to make tough decisions. and reinforced the idea of The Cash Strapped Consumer, which has been a key aspect of my Rise and Fall of the Middle Class PowerTrend .
The Castelao has already hosted 19 events since it was opened in the middle of January, with that number expected to rise to 30 prior to the start of the Confederations Cup.
The bull market in gold futures is linked with the rise in worldwide liquidity and fear of Middle Eastern destabilization.
And these values gave rise to the largest middle class and the strongest economy that the world has ever known.
The rise of the British middle classes, with their middle-sized houses and middle-sized gardens, led to a new emphasis on floral display rather than landscape in late-Victorian England.
Several things had helped, among them Elizabeth David's explorations of French and Italian cooking, cheap holidays abroad and the rise of a new middle class which had more money, and less sangfroid, than before.
It is also a fact that the greatest dangers facing Israel stem from President Barack Obama's rapid withdrawal of the US from its position as the predominant power in the Middle East on the one hand, and from Iran's rise as a nuclear power and regional power on the other.
So it should not come as much of a surprise that the markets doubt that it will, which is partly why prices rise with each new setback in the Middle East.
And frankly, if the economy were to stall here in response to a protracted rise in oil, the uncertainty in the Middle East, or renewed problems in Europe, they might have a point.
The recent populist uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa have had a particularly interesting impact on the rise of commodities prices.
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Then there is the middle step, the green hills that rise from 1, 000m to 4, 000m.
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In the Middle East, unemployment is on the rise again after a decline in the 2000s.
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