Chinese workers go about their chores at a textile factory.
The real estate and infrastructure bubbles are a great concern in China. But these challenges are short term that China may be able to spend its way out of. The real threat to China’s economy is bigger and longer term: its manufacturing bubble.
Continue reading… “The end of China’s manufacturing dominance”
The number of clearances rose in 2011 by about 3% to 4.86 million.
As of October 1, 2011 a new reported record of 4.8 million people held security clearances for access to classified information, according to a new intelligence community report to Congress.
Continue reading… “Number of people with U.S. government security clearances tops 4.8 million”
To maintain living standards into old age we need roughly 20 times our annual income in financial wealth.
In 2010, 75 percent of Americans nearing retirement age had less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts. Downward mobility in retirement is a looming reality for both middle and higher-income workers. Forty-nine percent of middle-class workers will be poor or near poor in retirement, living on a food budget of about $5 a day.
Continue reading… “49% of middle-class workers will be poor in retirement”
Dropbox, Evernote and RememberTheMilk do not make a case for freemium. And these three easily available examples do not make indisputable evidence against freemium. But these three quotes reflect a return to the roots of marketing — starting with customer needs, choosing the needs you want to serve and getting your fair share of the value created.
Continue reading… “Freemium is coming to an end”
Futurist Thomas Frey: In 2003 the DaVinci Institute produced a landmark event called “The Future of Money Summit” which took place at the Omni Hotel in Broomfield, CO. One of the featured speakers was Bernard Lietaer, chief architect of the Euro.
Continue reading… “Peter Thiel’s Quest for Creating a Viable Global Currency”
Most criticism toward Instagram borders on hatred.
Instagram is a simple service that lets people share their photos with others from a mobile device. They get a lot of criticism, bordering on hate. And it’s not just because the tiny startup is being acquired by Facebook recently for $1 billion, which will make all of its employees exceedingly rich — it’s because some people seem to believe that the ease with which amateur photographers can post photos to the service, and the filters Instagram provides in order to add special effects to them, are ruining photography. This isn’t really that surprising: it’s the same kind of criticism that has been made about blogging, citizen journalism and Twitter, among other things — and in each case the critics have been somewhat right, but mostly wrong.
Continue reading… “Criticism against Instagram and what it says about the future of media”
A World Bank report details the astounding growth of mobile since the year 2000. Just 12 years ago there were less than a billion mobile subscriptions worldwide. Today, there are more than 6 billion and the count will “will soon exceed that of the human population,” according to the Bank (it is common in many countries for one person to own multiple SIM cards). Three-quarters of the world population now has access to a mobile phone.
Continue reading… “Mobile phones will soon exceed the human population”
As employees chart their route to the top of the “Conceptual Age”, it’s important to know the skills that companies are looking for.
IBM’s 2010 Global CEO Study cited “creativity” as the most important leadership quality for the future when “global knowledge” was once essential for leaders. This is one of many signals that the business world is evolving out of the “Information Age,” where left-brain technical skills, knowledge and expertise were king.
Continue reading… “Work skills you will need to survive in the future”
Many workers who have lost their jobs have defaulted on 401(k) loans.
The number of displaced workers has risen dramatically since the start of the Great Recession, and this year a third of them had to raid retirement savings to make ends meet.
Continue reading… “35% of laid-off workers have raided their retirement savings”
The fact that OUYA raised so much money so fast speaks more to our fantasies than the market reality.
OUYA is the latest Kickstarter darling. It is “a new kind of video game console” that connects to your HDTV like an XBox but allows anyone to publish games like the Android Marketplace. The company behind the device raised their $1 million target in eight hours, and have reached $5 million with more than three weeks left in their campaign. Proponents of Kickstarter’s populist commercialism see OUYA as an unmitigated success.
Continue reading… “Is Kickstarter a crowdfunding platform or just another form of entertainment?”
In the last week, more universities signed on with Coursera.
Free online courses from prestigious universities were a rarity a few months ago. Now, they are the cause for announcements every few weeks, as a field suddenly studded with big-name colleges and competing software platforms evolves with astonishing speed.
Continue reading… “A dozen big-name universities join Coursera to offer free online classes”
Coursera will offer 100 or more free massive open online courses.
There is a shift in online learning that is reshaping higher education. Coursera, a year-old company founded by two Stanford University computer scientists, will announce that a dozen major research universities are joining the venture. In the fall, Coursera will offer 100 or more free massive open online courses, or MOOCs, that are expected to draw millions of students and adult learners globally.
Continue reading… “More colleges taking online education to a new level”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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