Open Source Software has , as any who are involved know, a dual edge to the sword. It delivers great range and depth to how problems , especially in programming can be solved. But on the other hand its money making model is down right monastic. Open Sourcers in programming for example can charge a […]
Kobe did it alone – brought the NBA Championship to LA as the lone and prime star of the Lakers[apologies to Fisher, Arizia, Pau Gasol, etc]. But that is the exception, not the rule. Pittsburg Penguins won Ice Hockey’s Stanley Cup with three stars – Sidney Crosby, Mark Andre Fleury, and Evgenii Malkin. The year
David Brooks of the NYTimes has said the notion of Financial Oligarchs is nonsense; rather the financial upheaval of the past two years and its consequent debilitating recession can be attributed to …. “stupidity”. I would like to quote some dissenting opinions. First, from the Atlantic there is : “The crash has laid bare many
There is a compelling article in the Telegraph on Islamic Finance. The problem is Sharia Law and its restrictions on loans and charging interest with its consequent implications for Islamic financing. The problem is that in Kuwait the Islamic financial firms are trying to work around the loans and interest restrictions in Sharia Law. it
There are two books that I am “reading” and they have an intriguing confluence. One is the Tale of Two Cities in audiobook format. This is Charles Dickens’ alternately brutal and romantic tale of the French Revolutionary Times – it might be thought of as one of the first thriller novels. This audiobook reading of
Barack Obama’s major impact on the change in power and the US Presidency is not that he is extremely well briefed and knowledgeable about a wide range of issues. Nor is that he can speak eloquently and with purpose on the topics and problems he is confronted with. No the outstanding qualities that are coming
After IBM, What Now for Sun? is the title of a good article at Business Week assessing the consequences of no merger between IBM and and Sun. But the better question is our title. Over the past 20 years and despite leading the US on patents, IBM has slowly but surely become the image of
In a previous posting, we have said that now more than ever before, durable, well paying jobs are now the Gold Standard for government’s in bolstering their economies. The problems, especially for developed countries like the US and Europe are threefold: 1)Manufacturing (the best durable and well paying jobs) has been exported overseas, primarily to
Tom Friedman has written 3 good books on the MidEast and has a command of whats happening in socio-economic trends throughout the Worldas evidenced in his 2 books the World is Flat and Hot, Crowded and Flat. So his commentary on the Gaza incursion is required reading. Unfortunately it must be takien against a backdrop
Mideast Ground Zero – Tom Friedman’s Look at Gaza Read More »
Here is a story ostensibly about something else but really that indicates there will be a changing of the guard in the Financial World. One of many.
One of the fundamental problems confronting the new Obama administration is that the flat world is working against American manufacturing jobs. For example, the Obama team is picking up the crescendo of calls for a US lead Green Revolution in technology and manufacturing not just in Energy and Cars but throughout all industries. But the
Time magazine adds a little levity to an otherwise shrill political scene with its weekly political cartoons. See them all here.
In a significant political opinion, NYTimes columnist David Brooks acknowledges what was manifest – Sarah Palin is not ready to become President: “But a few commentators, like George Will, Charles Krauthammer, David Frum and Ross Douthat demur, suggesting in different ways that she is unready….I would have more sympathy for this view [that Sarah’s ready]
Up until recently, the Financial Community has been spurning participating in a solution to the financial problems plaguing capital markets due to the leverage, derivative and sub-prime fiascoes. But now the Adminsitartion is supposedly reading the riot act to the big banks and financial houses regarding the fall of Lehman Brothers. See here. Now, this
There is a TV show that a lot of friends are trying to get me to watch. Its Durham, about a serial killer in Durham Ontario on the Showcase channel. Despite the upscale action and attractive cinematography, I have no interest in it. I am tired of serial killers on TV’s many Justice Is Rendered
I rarely agree with Paul Krugman’s economic policy; but his placement of the center of ideas from the current Republican party is right on Denmark. Krugmaan says the Republican’s who once prided themselves as being the party of ideas – is now clinging to the notion that appeals to the simple, brute force approach to
The Economist has in its July 26th issue, the first of two articles on Discontent in America. The polls are in alignment. Gallup shows a strong rise in discontent in America. When asked “How do you feel about the way things are going in America ? “, close to 85% of American register Dissatisfied versus
