So, in my list of weird interests, I <3 economics. So an article in the BBC News sparked my interest a few days ago.

The World Economic Forum recently published a study ranking the most “networked economies,” meaning which country has the most network integrated market economy. Surprising to some, though not to many, two clever Scandinavian countries, Denmark and Sweden, came in first and second, with the crafty Swiss coming in third.

However, the USA rose three places from last year to now be 4th on the list. USA! USA!

The WEF stated that this “shows that a coherent government vision on the importance of ICT, coupled with an early focus on education and innovation, are key.”

For someone as nerdy about economics as I am, this is pretty cool. It means that we are prepared, if not already, running a paperless economy with increased efficiency due to the speed of communication and data transfer. Efficiency=money, meaning network integration is really an economic revolution of epic proportions. Of course it has been developing for several years, but it’s just another effect of the evolving market economy that again proves Adam Smith’s theories in “Wealth of Nations” correct regarding the ever-diversifying means of transferring information and capital through an economy by means of the division of labor. A veritable pin factory, if you will, composed of corporations, data centers, servers, re-sellers, etc. But this also speaks to the integration of the world economy as a whole, relying more on networks to transmit information creating a more communicative world, enabling further negotiations and trade.

Maybe it’s just me, but I can also see this as somewhat self-validating to both us and others who are members of the IT industry in having created and aided a new way of doing business, as well as continuing to support the trend in an effort to remove both paper and inefficiency as we move into a completely…cliche alert…digital age.

As I raise my glass of tea, a toast to the networked economy.

To read the article yourself:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7338252.stm