Future in Review Names One to the World a FiRe X FiReStarter
Strategic News Service on Jan 17th, 2012
Strategic News Service is proud to announce that One to the World has been selected as a 2012 FiReStarter company to be featured at its tenth annual Future in Review (FiRe) technology conference. FiReStarter companies are selected based on their potential to bring positive change to the world, and are showcased during the conference both at an exclusive investor reception and in panels throughout the event.
With Adobe and Google as next door neighbors, the One to the World™ team develops world class software in the heart of Seattle’s tech-centric Fremont District. One to the World’s executive team has decades of combined experience producing both live events and software-driven experiences on nearly every continent on Earth. Their combined disciplines, along with a deep understanding of how to entertain and engage audiences, have informed every feature, function and One to the World™ service to work flawlessly and intuitively under real-world conditions.
“We are democratizing webcasting on the internet, making it simple for customers to create their own branded interactive broadcast channel,” said John Vadino, One to the World Founder and CEO.
Future in Review is an annual gathering of world-class thought leaders in technology and economics. FiRe attendees convene each year with the goal of using technology to solve major world problems, a goal that is consistently met through FiRe’s collaboration across disparate industries and through active support by the FiRe community. Now in its tenth year, Future in Review 2012 will take place May 22-25th at the beautiful Montage Resort in Laguna Beach, California. The Economist calls FiRe “the best technology conference in the world.”
“One to the World has found a terrific recipe for transforming one-time events into prolonged discussions for achieving social goals. Since harnessing technology for social benefit is a primary goal of our Future in Review Conferences, we think One to the World is onto something both useful and special,” said Mark Anderson, FiRe Chair and SNS CEO.
To register, go to http://www.futureinreview.com.
Technology predictions for 2012
Strategic News Service on Dec 29th, 2011
From NPR and KPLU Radio:
2012 will be a big year for TV, voice recognition and Amazon.com.
Strategic News Service publisher Mark Anderson has issued his list of top 10 technology predictions for 2012. He shares some of the highlights on The Digital Future with KPLU’s Dave Meyer.
Listen to the interview here and read the full set of predictions here.
Contrary Brin: Culture War and the Hijacking of Capitalism
Strategic News Service on Dec 16th, 2011
Long-time SNS member David Brin continues his spotlight on Culture War in America and beyond:
Let’s hear from two fellows who are unabashed capitalists and acolytes of Adam Smith… just like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates (and me!)… starting with one of the world’s top/respected pundits on technology industry, Mark Anderson, CEO of the Strategic News Service:
“For me, there is no more poignant example of the Bush 9.11 era, and the need to get beyond it now. Like two slides, I picture, first: an army of soldiers surrounding bin Laden in the mountains of Tora Bora, and then being ordered by Team Bush to wait until the locals can get there and participate, at which point the enemy has escaped.
“I compare that slide to the story of this year: after a year in secret investigation and preparation, Team Obama finds a likely target compound in Pakistan, orders in Seal Team Six via stealth choppers, uses overwhelming force, and shoots to kill. DNA samples are taken to confirm ID, and the body is dumped ignominiously in the ocean, with no propaganda pics for the enemy, and no burial process or site to rally round.” What a difference. And yet, which man is called a “wimp”?”
(I will soon put up an essay appraising the different ways that democrats and republicans use military might and wage war. You’ll be astonished by how stark it is, like night and day. Almost like two different species.)
Read the complete post at Contrary Brin
Updated: SNS to Feature Robert Hormats at Annual New York Predictions Dinner
Strategic News Service on Dec 6th, 2011
Update: Read Mark’s Top 10 Technology Predictions for 2012
We’d like to thank all our Predictions Dinner attendees for making this year’s sold out event our best one yet.
——
Strategic News Service presents its 7th Annual New York Predictions Dinner in New York City this week, featuring a conversation with Robert Hormats, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy & Agricultural Affairs. The reception, interview and dinner will take place Thursday, December 8th, at the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel.
The evening serves as an exclusive preview into Strategic News Service CEO Mark Anderson’s annual list of predictions in global technology and economics. In past years, Anderson has successfully predicted the 2007 global economic meltdown, the emergence of “Currency Wars” and of “Economic Cyberwar,” together with increasing global IP theft by China, among other major global trends.
Other registered guests include Nuance Communications’ Chairman and CEO, Paul Ricci; AOL CTO, Alexander Gounares; Department of Homeland Security, Director of Global Cyber Security Management, Richard Marshall; Warburg Pincus, Sr. Advisor, Bill Janeway; and top technology managers from Accenture and Deloitte.
“The world economy is now pivoting around Intellectual Property, and I am looking forward to hearing the State Department’s view on how this will play out between China and the Inventing Countries,” said Mark Anderson, FiRe Chair and SNS CEO.
Register here for the New York Dinner.
Strategic News Service Welcomes Keiretsu Forum as Alliance Partner
Strategic News Service on Dec 5th, 2011
Strategic News Service welcomed Keiretsu Forum as an Alliance Partner this week. The partnership represents a new level of support and interaction between the two organizations, as they seek to support and promote world-changing companies around the world as they make the transition from start-ups to thriving enterprises.
Keiretsu Forum is the world’s largest angel investor network with 850 accredited investor members throughout twenty-one chapters on three continents. Since Keiretsu Forum’s founding in 2000, its members have invested over $260m in companies in technology, consumer products, healthcare/life sciences, real estate and other segments with high growth potential. Forum members collaborate in the due diligence, but make individual investment decisions, with rounds in the range of $250k-$2m. Keiretsu Forum’s community is strengthened through education on angel investing, as well as charitable giving. Forum members have donated over $1m to over 100 non-profit organizations.
“We are pleased to join as an Alliance Partner with Strategic News Service to provide this additional level of media promotion and exposure for our portfolio companies,” said Randy Williams, Founder and CEO of Keiretsu Forum.
“We are terrifically excited to work with the Keiretsu global network of startups and investors. Combining their reach and good work in helping companies launch, with our strategic understanding of where technology has the greatest chance for success, ought to be a powerhouse combination,” said Mark Anderson, FiRe Chair and SNS CEO.
The Strategic News Service provides a weekly online newsletter predicting global trends in technology and economics. It is the most accurate publicly-graded predictive newsletter covering the computer and telecom industries. Recent calls include the 2007 global economic meltdown, the emergence of “Currency Wars” and of “Economic Cyberwar,” together with increasing global IP theft by China, among other major global trends. SNS is delivered each week to a subscriber base of C-level global technology and finance executives, and to thought leaders in technology, science and economics. Together with Accenture, SNS has just completed a London-based conference on “Economic Cyberwar” for international CIOs of major global corporations. It is also the host of the annual Future in Review (FiRe) technology conference.
FiRe attendees convene each year with the goal of solving major world problems; a goal that is consistently met through FiRe’s collaboration across disparate industries and the intellectual and strategic guidance of FiRe Chair and SNS CEO, Mark Anderson. Now in its tenth year, Future in Review 2012 will take place May 22-25th at the beautiful Montage Resort in Laguna Beach, California. The Economist has called FiRe “The best technology conference in the world.”
To register and learn more, visit www.futureinreview.com.
Britain’s Economic Future: An Intercontinental Correspondence
Strategic News Service on Dec 2nd, 2011
[On November 25, Mark emailed Tim Coldwell, well-known retired British entrepreneur, currently living in Le Touquet and Paris, France. Given Tim's ongoing interest in euro finance and banking, Mark asked for his opinion on Britain's economic future. In ascending order, here are Tim's thoughts. After the opening volley, all entries are written by Tim Coldwell unless otherwise noted. Stay tuned for an upcoming SNS Special Letter by Tim . – Ed.]
25 November 2011 23:16
Mark Anderson:
Tim, how do you see Britain’s economic future?
26 November 2011 14:09:
Tim Coldwell:
Northern Rock sale raised £750m, “enough to finance the UK state spending machine for about 9 hours”
In a nutshell, the old French jibe that Britain is a nation of shopkeepers comes to mind. At last someone (Andy Haldane of B of E) has published a good paper to refute the bankers’ claim that the city is so important to the UK economy.
Hot topic this last week:
There is much talk of doing something about excessive executive pay. The government are “consulting”. I’ve yet to hear anyone suggest that outside directors who are involved in corporate remuneration committees should be both elected and paid solely and directly by shareholders (aka owners) rather than the corporation. FTSE 100 senior execs getting a 49% pay rise (aided and abetted by pay consultants) when the general population suffers falling real incomes is not smart.
Economic future
The UK’s economic future looks grim. If the usual technique of attracting inward investment (gateway to Europe concept like Ireland) with low corporate tax rates is used I suspect an EU backlash may result. Pushing down the £ FX rate a few years ago did not go unnoticed. And, if the Euro survives it’s hard to see it holding its current strength if, as most expect, printing a lot of new money will be needed to bail out weak EZ countries which assuming little is sanitized QE will restart UK QE to continue the “currency wars”.
2 years ago I told Jon Moulton when he was indicating support for the latest government plan to cut public expenditure to increase private investment etc., that I couldn’t see sufficient aggregate demand anywhere to support this plan.
Lo and behold, government borrowing is now forecast to be less than 1% different than would have been Labour’s plan. Growth is going to be flat for years at close to zero.
Meanwhile articles such as this cause much head scratching amongst the talking heads.
A little data that makes me smile:
Sorry this is short and rambling but there is not a lot, good or bad, to report 
Tim
26 November 2011 14:28:
The euro zone
Is this really the end?
Unless Germany and the ECB move quickly, the single currency’s collapse is looming”
www.economist.com/node/21540255
Tim
26 November 2011 14:35
And:
How to stop the bogus bonus
Successful oversight is going to require more transparency about what trades are being made. But transparency is a scarce commodity
“It used to be so easy to “earn” a performance bonus in financial services. Step one: agree a contract whereby you are paid if you exceed a modest benchmark with the funds you are managing. Step two: borrow money and invest it in risky assets. Step three: profit! Step three does not follow automatically, of course, if the risky asset does not pay off. But from the point of view of the fund manager and his bonus, itā€™s a case of ā€ heads I win, tails the investor loses.
http://timharford.com/2011/11/how-to-stop-the-bogus-bonus/
26 November 2011 14:56
And a very good review of the current status, focussed mainly on Europe (UK is a side issue) from [John Mauldin, writing at Barry's "The Big Picture"].
27 November 2011 12:29:
Treasury subsidises small-business loans
How might Greece leave the euro?
Too-clever banking may have played a role in getting us into the economic and financial mess we’re in.
But the Treasury hopes that a bit of financial engineering of its own will help to get us out.
The Chancellor, George Osborne, is aiming to use limited quantities of taxpayers’ money to unlock private-sector cash and to stimulate activity by private-sector businesses, at a time when those businesses are scaling back investment and expansion ambitions.
The most eye-catching initiative, which goes by the name of credit easing, could reduce the interests costs on £20bn of loans for small and medium size businesses by around 1% over the next couple of years.
Then there’s a separate proposal to subsidise to the tune of £1bn the creation of new private sector funds that would lend to all but the very biggest businesses – in competition with the banks that currently dominate business lending.
Finally, the Treasury will be giving technical assistance to pension funds, to unlock around £20bn of British pension savers’ cash for investment in roads, rail, and other infrastructure projects – to get British pension funds providing capital to improve infrastructure in the way that Canadian and Australian pension funds already do.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15908514
Pushing on a string?
Tim
27 November 2011 13:08:
ECB couldn’t inflate even if it wanted to: Warren Mosler http://t.co/0J7zWyKA
If true, is this good or bad news for UK (and US)? It seems to imply that ECB could print (without sterilisation), not weaken the Euro and EZ could take over from US as the the world’s consumer of last resort.
Somehow I doubt it The newly printed Euros would eventually get sold for $s, Yuan etc. to pay for increasing imports while EZ exports slump. Then the fake status of a kind of “reserve currency” would become obvious to investors in Euro denominated debt …. etc.
Or can everyone play the Japanese game now …. until no-one can?
Tim
27 November 2011 13:34:
Germany and the Eurozone: Clutching disaster from the jaws of victory?
John Muellbauer
25 November 2011
For months economists have been arguing that Germany holds the key to ending the Eurozone crisis. Should it relax its anti-inflation stance and allow the ECB to inflate away sovereign debt? Or should it write a cheque of its own to the EFSF? Neither, says this column. There is a simple solution, if only Eurozone leaders can see it. Eurobonds are the answer – but wiith conditions.
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/7332
Mark,
This might be close to the real plan. But does it address demand? Not directly, but a halt to the EZ crisis might help sentiment, bearing in mind that the EU is the world’s largest economic zone. Therefore this would be good for UK (and US).
Tim
27 November 2011 13:44:
Reviving manufacturing
No land of giants
A lack of big companies hampers efforts to boost manufacturing
Nov 26th 2011 | from the print edition
Its effect on the economy is even mightier
THREE decades ago a Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher removed many of the props that had supported manufacturing, revealing its weakness and causing factories to collapse. Now manufacturing is modish. The business secretary, Vince Cable, talks of polishing the image of an industry associated with dirt and decline, and of rebalancing the economy away from financial services toward more tangible stuff. On November 17th David Cameron attended the launch of a new engineering prize and opened a factory in Surrey that will make 4,000 expensive supercars a year.
In the early 1980s about 6m people worked in manufacturing; today the figure is barely 2.5m. Once-famous firms such as British Leyland, GEC and ICI have fallen apart or been taken over and dismembered. Stronger growth in other sectors means manufacturing has slumped from 25% of the economy to 11% today. Yet manufacturing output was rising before recession hit in 2008. Foreign firms like Nissan, Honda and Toyota opened car factories that became efficiency leaders in Europe, taking British car production back up to 1.5m vehicles a year. Some four-fifths of the output of such factories is exported.
www.economist.com/node/21540267
See also: www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-top-manufacturing-countries.htm
China was once before the world’s leading manufacturer — way back in 1830, the country was responsible for 30% of the global industrial output.
Tim
27 November 2011 14:00:
Juergen Stark explains ECB opposition to monetisation is not about inflation
Conclusion: central bankers always prefer to force elected officials to make the tough political choices that are the essence of fiscal policy. The fiscal agent adds and subtracts net financial assets in the private sector by deficit spending, or cutting spending and raising taxes. Central bankers want the fiscal agent to use these tools as the driver of macroeconomic policy while the monetary agent is tasked with more narrow aims.
www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/11/juergen-stark-on-ecb-inflation-monetisation.html
Mark,
This is why the ECB is what I call a “fake” central bank, hence the Euro is, perhaps, a “fake” currency.
This is not to say I think CBs bailing out idiotic banks with taxpayer money is part of their role
Ed Harrison’s take:
In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a leading German broadsheet, the ECB chief economist explained his resignation and that of Bundesbank head Axel Weber in terms very similar to these. The argument is clear. Whether the ECB eventually is forced to take on this quasi-fiscal role by the escalating sovereign debt crisis is another matter. I have said the ECB will be forced into this role because of Italy, though I do have my doubts.
Below is my translation of the Stark interview. Note his commentary on commodity and asset-price inflation and the distortionary asset-based economic model based on cheap money that is practiced in the US. His is a framing of the problem with which I agree due to the altered private portfolio preferences this Greenspan/Bernanke put engenders.
However, I do not agree with Stark’s framing of deficits as the “root causes” of the crisis. Spain and Ireland had no deficits pre-crisis. The problem was the incomplete institutional arrangement of the euro zone currency union. Any solution that does not address this will fail.
Also notice his framing of the Eurobond/fiscal union issue. He doesn’t rule out Eurobonds. Rather, he says it must be fiscal/political union first and only then Eurobonds.
Political union is a dream, fiscal union may be possible but will still take years to achieve, meanwhile …
Tim
27 November 2011 14:07:
Sources: IMF to offer Italy a 600 billion euro bailout via ECB funding
According to Austrian daily Der Standard, Italy is to receive a 600 billion euro bailout courtesy of the IMF. Note: the article has what I assume to be a typo, referring to 600 million euros instead of 600 billion. I have fixed that in the translation below. Also note that the ultimate source of this information is La Stampa, an Italian daily newspaper.
www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/11/imf-ecb-italy-600-billion-euro-bailout.html
Mark,
So, indirectly the US taxpayer may now be on the hook to the ECB and Italy too. But, of course, the IMF never takes a haircut
Tim
27 November 2011 14:18:
Some related tweets:
RT @economistmeg: The EUR600bn IMF plan might look something like this (as I did the calculations 10 days ago) http://t.co/069tXbnW
edwardnh:
There’s a lotta lotta going on in Europe this weekend. throwing stuff on the wall to see what sticks. I anticipate a strong market reaction
RT @trumanfactor: “When a central bank has financed states in grand style, it has always led to disaster.” (Juergen Stark) http://t.co/ORCLQGKT - via @polit2k
RT @hblodget: IMF said to be bailing out Italy… which means US taxpayer is bailing out Italy http://t.co/plnfDWwp
Tim
27 Nov 2011 14:41:34:
John Rentoul: Labour wakes up, fuzzy and too late
As Osborne fiddles, Miliband, rather belatedly, is beginning to think about balancing the books
Mark,
Alternative title: “2 men in a boat … up the creek … without a paddle between them”
Tim
PS: And more tweets from @economistmeg:
An IMF bailout for Italy would be followed immediately by IMF bailout for Spain. Hope they’re considering that in their calcs for It bailout
EZ crisis key dates ahead http://t.co/8W2CVayV
27 Nov 2011 21:15:32:
The Entire Sovereign Debt Crisis Can Be Understood By Looking At Sweden Vs. Finland
Read more: www.businessinsider.com/sweden-vs-finland-2011-11
and:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/the-euro-curse
Mark,
Is the ECB now being seen as a fake CB because it denies LOLR role? In a crisis investors look much further than they normally do when doing risk analysis.
Tim
27 November 2011 22:05:
Mark Anderson:
Hi Tim,
- yes.
- we are thinking of posting this whole run on the abrightfire.com site, instead of in the letters section as last time. ca va?
mark
28 November 2011 01:17:
Mark Anderson:
Would you have any interest in writing a Special Issue for us?
Tim Coldwell:
OK with me. Bit of a mouthful?
Latest:
Roubini doubts the La Stamp article re IMF €600 billion for Italy. [ Me too ]
RT @Nouriel: Only way to get €600bn to italy is to combine IMF, NABB, ECB/SMP, new SDRs & bigger EFSF. To get there EFSF has to be turned into a €1tr ESM.
Should the Fed save Europe from disaster?
ZekeJMiller‚
Obama and EU leaders will make statements at 1:40 tomorrow. Will discuss the global economy in the Roosevelt Room.
Hmm
28 November 2011 04:19
This time it’s Steve Keen on the hot seat on HARDtalk. Now, Steve is one of the few economists who actually predicted the global financial crisis. But what about the possibility of another Great Depression? That possibility and how to avoid it were the topics of conversation in this 25-minute interview. Great stuff.
www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/11/steve-keen-on-hardtalk-on-the-financial-crisis-and-the-economy.html
Tim
28 Nov 2011 04:23:41
The eurozone really has only days to avoid collapse
By Wolfgang Mȕnchau
“Italy’s disastrous bond auction on Friday tells us time is running out. The eurozone has 10 days at most.”
RT @pkedrosky: .@zkiraly If you can’t access the Munchau piece in FT, try this: http://t.co/riBynPU2
Countering the cyber espionage threat from China and Russia
Strategic News Service on Nov 29th, 2011
From NPR and KPLU Radio:
It’s official: China and Russia are the two biggest sources of cyber espionage attacks against the United States.
The Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive singled out those two nations in a recent report to Congress (coincidentally, it’s been difficult to reach the counterintelligence website since the report came out and those links may not work).
Our technology commentator, Strategic News Service publisher Mark Anderson, has been warning about this threat for several years. Although the news is no surprise, Mark thinks the official acknowledgement will encourage governments and corporations to more closely guard their secrets.
Strategic News Service Welcomes Nuance Communications as Global Platinum Partner
Strategic News Service on Nov 22nd, 2011
Strategic News Service welcomed Nuance Communications, Inc as a Global Platinum Partner this week. The partnership is symbolic of both companies’ commitment to creating a global connected world through communications and technology.
Nuance Communications is the leading provider of voice and natural language solutions that bridge the gap between people and their information and communications. The company designs and delivers intuitive solutions that help people live and work more intelligently. From voice technologies that let people search the Web or send messages from a mobile device, to services that help companies offer superior customer service experiences and healthcare solutions that help physicians focus on patient care instead of documentation, Nuance’s priority is creating solutions that put people in command. The company provides the tools to inform, connect and empower people to be more productive and creative.
“SNS has been accurately predicting the landscape around us for many years. With this new partnership, we look forward to interacting more intensely with the SNS community and bringing Nuance solutions forward into even greater consumer and business solutions,” said Paul Ricci, Nuance Communications Chairman and CEO.
“We have all been waiting for that moment in computing history when voice became the ultimate enabler in human-machine interaction. Thanks to Nuance, that time is now arriving. We are excited to be able work with our new partners in assisting them as they revolutionize how we compute and communicate in virtually every major industry,” said Mark Anderson, FiRe Chair and SNS CEO.
SNS Special Letter: Quantified Health
Strategic News Service on Nov 20th, 2011
Towards Digitally Enabled Genomic Medicine:
A 10-Year Detective Story of Quantifying My Body
By Larry Smarr
This is a report on my 10-year personal quest to increasingly quantify my body. As a lifelong scientist, this form of understanding my physical being has come naturally to me.
In many ways, my personal journey is a detective story. It started with simple quantification, such as weighing myself every day; but then clues began emerging which caused me to dig deeper and to rapidly expand the biochemical variables I was tracking over time. Eventually, I made a completely unexpected discovery about myself, with serious future health ramifications. But rather than jump to that surprise twist, I will describe the journey I experienced step-by-step, in the belief that hearing about the evolution of my understanding may benefit others.
What I have learned about myself both illustrates and foreshadows the ongoing digital transformation of medicine[1]. As our technological ability to “read out” the state of our body’s many subsystems improves, keeping track of changes in our key biochemical markers over time will become routine, and deviations from norms will more easily reveal early signals of disease development.
Genome sequencing is exponentially decreasing in cost, allowing for much broader population sequencing, leading to a digital context for comparison of our individual body’s markers. Social networks enable sharing among people with similar health situations[2] in a way that was virtually impossible until recently, increasing the positive reinforcement of better personal health choices. Finally, the emergence of system biology is leading to an integrative approach for all this data.
As mentioned above, I have been engaged in an ongoing personal experiment[3] in probing this emerging paradigm. This report is a short summary of my quest – a report from the field on the coming radical changes in how we can monitor and improve our personal health status.
Read the complete letter here: Quantified Health
A Merry Christmas for technology?
Strategic News Service on Oct 25th, 2011
From NPR and KPLU Radio:
Strategic News Service publisher Mark Anderson is predicting the technology sector will end the year on a relatively high note. But, as he tells KPLU’s Dave Meyer on The Digital Future, he’s worried about the first quarter of 2012.
Next Page »