Unless you live in North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, or one of the world's other communist or socialist nations, 2015 was a pretty good year.  This in spite of all that leftists in the U.S. and elsewhere could do to spoil it. The U.S. economy advanced by 2%, Japan by 0.5%, and Europe by less than 0.5% (not good, but better than 2014).  India's economy grew by more than 7%, and China, if you believe state reporting agencies, grew by 6.8%.  Global wage growth was strong, especially in developing markets.  According to Aon Hewitt, wages were predicted to finish higher in 2015, with estimates for North America of 3.0%, Europe 3.7%, Asia Pacific 5.8%, Latin America 5.9%, and Africa 8.0%. It could have been a lot worse if oil prices had remained high, as they were through the first half of 2014.  According to one estimate, a 45% decline in oil prices translates into an increase of 0.7% to 0.8% in global GDP.  Oil prices are now much lower than that:...(Read Full Article)