Posted before NAFTA Renegotiations started on Aug 15, 2017 Bilateral negotiations between USA, Canada and Mexico are scheduled to start tomorrow to renegotiate NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) which was earlier signed into law in the 1990s. NAFTA was negotiated with the premise that countries in North America had deep relationships and North Americans compete as a block (bound competitiveness). However, in the intervening two decades, we have seen that the business landscape has undergone a sea change since the original NAFTA was negotiated when internet commerce did not exist. In the guise of an Inclusive Trade Agenda,
Month: August 2017
Confrontation with North Korea – Deja Vu?
Published Aug 12, 2017: This week we had another, by all accounts, successful ICBM Test by North Korea aka DPRK (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea), which makes it two in a row. This coupled with separate successful Nuclear Tests in earlier years, has “upped the ante” in in the Korean Peninsula and now has the potential to cross some dangerous “red lines”. It can now be surmised that North Korea is probably working on “miniaturizing” the nuclear warheads to mount them on the cone of the ICBM to perform “integrated tests” of the entire ICBM system in coming months. If / when DPRK
President Trump Effect – Campaign Promises kept in the first 150 days – A+
Published June 15, 2017 It has been about 150 days since President Trump assumed the highest office in the land and it is refreshing to see a leader keep his campaign promises. He has been diligently pursuing his set out agenda and is reassuring to see him fulfill some important conservative objectives which we have enumerated below Official US Withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership: President Trump lost no time in fulfilling one of his key campaign promises to help the suffering US Workers who when the US TR (Trade Rep) issued a letter to the signatories of the TPP
Welcome….. President Elect Trump to the Oval Office…You have a Historic Mandate from the American People
Published earlier in Dec 2016 in my earlier Blog – Ported here in Aug 2017: We are very optimistic that election of President-Elect Trump to the highest office of our country, is a great watershed moment, akin to a breath of fresh air. He truly heard the angst of the American middle class, not merely listened to them as others have done in the past, and the American People repaid him in kind, by electing him to be our President. The “Trump Wave” also resulted in the people giving him a clear mandate with control of both the Senate and House
Our Endorsement in 2016 Presidential Elections: Donald J Trump for President
Published: Oct 24, 2016 We need to ask ourselves the following questions: How come more and more of our citizens express frustration and disillusionment today with the political institutions that govern the nation? How have we fallen so much into political and policy gridlock? How have both political parties moved either left or right of the nation’s political mainstream landscape? This angst was reflected in both parties primary elections where Donald J Trump has surprised the establishment, by ignoring convention and protocol on his way to securing the Republican presidential nomination, while a long-time socialist generated throngs of enthusiastic
Wells Fargo Fake Account Scandal – Lessons for Financial Institution Leadership and Banking Regulators
Published earlier in Oct 2016 in my earlier Blog – Ported here in Aug 2017: As we have all read in the news recently, Wells Fargo & Co is currently embroiled in a fake accounts creation scandal. It is understood that this was a multiyear “scam” where millions of unrequested, fee-generating customer accounts were unearthed at Wells Fargo (WFC), a bank traditionally considered “old school” and “conservative”. The alleged misconduct was revealed when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Los Angeles City Attorney and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) fined the bank $185 million, alleging that more
BREXIT – how did Pollsters on both sides of the Atlantic get it so wrong?
Published earlier in July 2016 in my earlier Blog – Ported here in Aug 2017: As the dust settles and UK has officially elected to leave the EU with the BREXIT referendum, an event of epic geo-political implications that has sent shockwaves across financial markets, raised doubts over the fate of the European Union and forced the British Prime Minister Prime Minister to resign. Leading up to voting day, the vast majority of polls predicted the remain side would prevail. However the final results gave the leave side a victory margin of more than one million votes. The inaccurate Brexit prediction is
Silicon Valley Tech Titans Succession Planning
Published earlier in Sep 2015 in my earlier Blog – Ported here in Aug 2017: As you may have noticed, some of the original Tech Titans, who have founded great Tech companies and have changed our lives for the better forever, are now slowly planning their retirement. We saw this earlier this year with Google appointing a new CEO while Oracle a little while ago appointed two Co-CEOs. We believe that Messrs. Larry Page, Sergei Brin and Larry Ellision would have considered what happened to Steve Jobs, earlier in the 1980s, where he lost control of Apple to Sculley, and had to
Microsoft: The Boss is back – le bon temps roulette
Published earlier in Feb 2014 in my earlier Blog – Ported here in Aug 2017: You may have seen the news recently that Microsoft will now have a new CEO in place of Steve Ballmer. This had to be done in response to Wall Street angst with the direction that MSFT has been heading under Steve Ballmer. Along with this announcement came the news that Bill Gates will now assume the new role as “Founder and Technical Advisor” and spend considerable time “assisting” the new CEO and the technical teams. Microsoft is now at a crossroads and this was an opportunity for
Why do people always vote against their economic self interest?
Published earlier in Jan 2015 in my earlier Blog – Ported here in Aug 2017: We always wonder during elections why the middle class generally vote for candidates with conservative values (right side of the aisle) while the wealthy typically vote for liberal (left leaning) candidates. We believe that this occurs because middle class voters identify more with parties with conservative values who are typically socially conservative with pro-life, pro 2nd Amendment, anti-abortion, religious with family values agenda while wealthy voters tend to gravitate towards liberal parties who have a more “progressive” agenda with a pro-choice, anti 2nd Amendment, pro-abortion and non-religious
Protect your Financial Health on the Internet
Published earlier in 2012 in my earlier Blog – Ported here in Aug 2017: The internet has made life very simple in many ways but has introduced a new set of challenges particularly in the area of personal finance. I have provided some very simple steps that you could take to protect your financial health when using Internet safely in the 21st Century: User ID or Name: Make sure Userids are generic and you do not reveal any personal information. For example, I know of some folks who include their Birthday in their userid e.g. adam07041991. You need to realize that