IT Sectors Recent Views and Questionable Predictions

Will there be a new predictable 

IT Stock Bonanza?

As the economy shows some signs of recovery and corporations feel in the mood to invest in information technology, positive-minded CE0s drive decisions that can also raise the IT sector into a multi-year bonanza.

The politics economics are quite complex and the lack of stability in other aggregate economic sectors could convey an unpredictable scenario in a financial sector that has suffered significantly since the beginning of the millennium.

Apple shows signs of turning around an unusual recent slip, and has overcome its results to nearly 40% YTD growth.

Other companies such as Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft have provided a perspective towards a long-term recovery in the information technology financial market landscape.

The Tough Life of Artists

 An art and fashion exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York

In a difficult, yet recovering economy, artists of all genres are facing the most difficult times of their life ever.

A study shows how the reduction in the number of grants, scholarships, a direct government funding has greatly affected the artistic world in many dimensions, including galleries, museums and activities and events at these and other venues.

But most importantly the quality of life seems to be deteriorating, in comparison to others who work regular jobs, and have kept it consistently for many years. But artists could smile as the economy improves greatly in the right direction.

It seems though that the ("private") philanthropists have been more consistent with their investment in art, as non-government organizations (NGO’s), than the government itself.

The return on investment in art has greatly failed to meet the expectation of many artists who have for the most part put a great deal of their talent capital and their personal investments, as well as that of venture capitalists.

However, a small minority of artists has consistently succeeded in project networking and has predictively attained a resilient increasing income, which entices them to further creative work, validating their sense of independence as well as their ability to work in group projects, with private and public investments.

Certainly, museums, historic art sites, galleries, and artists deserve better appreciation of their talent and creative capital in a difficult economy.

A couple of decades ago, I read an interesting article on professions that suggested for artists, writers, and poets, to be a more loved community among professions in the 21st century, in comparison to professions such as engineers, doctors of medicine, lawyers, and other liberal arts and traditional professions.  While the truth remains to be seen, the quality of life fluctuates with more realistic difficulty than those with white-collar jobs, wearing a tie or not, or even solidly established blue-collar professionals or technicians.

The Economics of Love

THE POWER OF TWO

Last Sunday's New York Times referred to the love economics. Economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers disserted about economic issues in the household, emphasizing that like, many, they have stayed unmarried for financial reasons. A few weeks ago, a report by France24 and Radio France Internationale presented a government study where couples, and especially women involved in a relationship, would do better working part-time than full-time and that women having a freelance job would dramatically exceed their career development opportunities as they also had a better chance to be dedicated parents. Also, just a few weeks ago, DANE in Colombia, an government entity that gathers national statistics in that country revealed that the number of marriage registrations decreased from about 160,000 per year to roughly over 50,000 per year. So, free union has unfortunately become a habit in many South American countries, but for many polygamy, abuse, and concubinage are a sample of a one-side power, usually the male one. Also, many marriages have been anulled or under a divorce action that is typically unilateral. When a marriage is anulled, it no longer counts in the public record, as it in fact it never happened. 
As I learned the rules of engagement and union, as being raised as a Catholic in an all-boys primary school that, I received a decisive ethical perception in spite that the rest of my education was not received at a Catholic or religion-driven institution. I learned however to significantly attain problem-solving alone through my life working part-time as I attended several schools at the same time. My education sometimes confronts me in my social life. And enduring family responsibilities is not an easy task, and it can convey priorities, such as caring for the elderly.
For many economists, the idea that couples should share expenses proportionally to their salaries is an ideal scenario for household expenses, but it seldom happens. Sometimes, half and half, or one pays for it all are the most common practices. Yet with the current economic crisis, many separated individuals end up living with relatives and under public assistance.

As far as taxes are concerned many couples feel the burden of taxes more than singles, in spite, of the many benefits and exceptions of having a household.

In constrast, at a time when the New Jersey Legislation passed the so called “gay marriage”, I believe that it contradicts with the semantics of the word, which is significantly spiritual. I believe that the word is being used in appropriately and feel offended in my personal belief, as it is an implicit blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, since the gay union cannot procreate naturally. When I attended the law school most laws were based on natural laws, rather than on contra natura laws, and the sense of ethics was based in that principle. While everyone has the right to love as desired, and all civil rights should support the constitutional right to free association and free will, the principles where one's right ends where other begins could be applicable here as true Christians, Catholics and non-Catholics, and several other religions could hardly approve the expansion of social liberties and freedom beyond the natural law to trangress the principles of belief by those of the non-believers in a rather offensive fashion. I believe that civil unions between gays should not offend the sacred nature of marriage whose main goal is natural procreation and life. I hope that the contra natura laws will be vetoed in New Jersey for good. The US states were this law was approved will learn of their effect only until a new generations will have lived it.  Not surprinsingly all countries where these unions have been legalized are in an economic burden and curse.

The countries where social sciences have studied the negative impact of these unions to society, including the future socio-economic development, have strongly opposed and rejected them, by straight law, refererendum, and various constitutional methods thereof. It appears that some of the most important achievements of civilization, such as the nature of family, will be significantly affected, and that social anarchy over the issue could affect even larger institutions such as both state and church. The non-approval of “gay marriage” should affect their civil rights, so the problem is simply about and beyond the semantics of the word and its sacred nature with the social implications involved.

Current Economics Issues: The Return on Education and the Cost of your Commute

The Value of Today's MBA

In January, 2003, when Mark J. Robertson started his MBA at MSU he had a substantial amount of savings, rental income, investments and retirement plans, all of which had a successful return. However, three years later at the end of his MBA in 2006, Mark J. was had already depleted all his savings, lost his rental income, and had in fact the path to gradual investment liquidation, all of which was finished by the 2008 global economy crisis.

While some MBA programs are extensive or more comprehensive than others, the outcome is about the same. Either they took long to accomplish and become a burden to career development, or they are just average covering essential topics in depth.

The cost of attaining an MBA degree today ranges from $55,000 to $180,000 depending on the school. The greatest concern is also that an MBA could drive a different perception on professional skills, such as, removing the technical skills from an expert, and driving them into some sort of entry-level management in spite of their technical managerial experience, or possibly an underrated or less qualified financial analyst and so on.

The Cost of Commuting into the Cities

Today, commuting from New Jersey into Manhattan and other boroughs in New York City is roughly about $35 for the average per diem suburb commute, and about $30 when the commuter has a pass. However, if you drive into the city, you should be spending roughtly $50, not including city parking, from the average New Jersey point.

The fact is that many students and workers of all nature are already affected by the inflated costs of commuting into New York, which is also somewhat reflected in other states. The current toll rate into New York City from New Jersey is contronting a great legal battle.

The Quality of Personal Care Products Today

The quality of personal care products, including electric razors, tooth brushes, waterjet floss, nose trimmers, and many of others alike, is significantly poor. In the past few, years I personally spent several hundreds of dollars on innovation products instead of traditional devices, and they have not responded to my expectation in terms of durability or reliability, regardless of their functionality and usability. Besides, returning, exchanging the product, or getting a refund seems to be a time-consuming task, for which you must have the money to afford a backup device or go buy the traditional goods already inflated in price. I believe that these products are apparently all made in the USA, so there is no need to blame a foreign country for their lack of quality.  Thus, one needs to keep the traditional dental floss yarn at hand just in case one's waterjet breaks.

Besides, my final point is that trying to make a company more profitable should not convey the process of abasing the quality of their products, since this will have not only an impact on the consumer's willingness to buy but also on the consumer confidence on the basis of a return on investment as utility or personal satisfaction. If you extended this perception on other productlines, certainly the sense of social responsibility is being neglected for pure profitability.

The Burdens to Economic Growth

During the past ten years, especially after 9/11/01, the US Government has taken a variety of measures to activate and improve the economy, including trying to control inflation, decreasing the interest rate on mortgage, and many others, which have temporarily leverage certain scenarios but have been unable to fully control the economic growth and more significantly its impact on the rest of the world, explicitly, on the global economy. In addition to the Euro crisis with the weakness in some European countries in the Euro zone, there are various other factors related to money exchange including China's valuation policies of their currency, and the trading factors indirectly affecting not only the USA but most significantly countries in developing countries in Africa and Latin America.

There various types of burdens, among them, I could highlight the following:

1. The Legal Burden caused by Exacerbated Regulatory Compliance
   I pretty sure that the US Congress does a great job writing laws that will benefit the nation in the short and long terms. However, the implementation of regulatory compliance and deadline imposed had made the greatest impact on US economy, at least from the technology point of view. For instance, the ideal scenario that information systems, whether financial or medical or of some other sort, could legally comply with those regulations in record time, forced some sort of lack of adjustments on financial systems that had already suffered damage from the September 11 attacks. I believe that many systems were masked to comply, others were actually disrupted and never attained a perfect testing scenario, and many others are still in the process of achieving regulatory compliance. The outcome has been that the economy has also suffered from software error, beyond the human error, due to partial or inaccurate implementation, resulting in a severe factor affecting even some economic indicators, and I would even dare to say that at least some volatility is driven by this factor or as an indirect consequence. In fact, if information system failed to be accurate and does not transcend confidence this translates into information asymmetry, data inconsistency, lack of integrity, and business process error.
2. The Political Anarchy
   In contrast, the inability of the three branches of government to further execute relevant economic measurements that would consistently improve the economy in conjunction with the social impact directed by those branches, especially, the legislative power, dramatically affected the resiliency of economic process recovery. A simple example is how much it takes to agree on a budget plan.
3. The Homeland Security Model
   The homeland security model has increasingly become more expensive and rather than driving a good number of jobs is rather a source of continued unemployment. While we cannot compare this security model to the invasion of privacy taking place in other countries for the same reasons, it is obvious that the model precludes a good number of citizens from attaining clearance to get a job, while it also implicitly creates business constraints for corporations to hire professionals matching a specific job. The number of professional jobs created is not significant compared to the number of jobs that are automatically blocked by the above factors.
4. Unemployment and Social Life
   Like in feudal times, machismo, feminism, and other lifestyle movements create a significant amount of investments for the private and public sectors that do not provide the best opportunities to the best candidates but rather to those that are to be protected under each ism circumstance, as convenient. So, today you could find the best men and women matching the right job unemployed simply because they did not fall in the frame of reference or at least as expected by both the private and public investment that lead to the planning and implementation of relevant failed strategies, resulting in less productivity and higher costs.
5. The Business Landscape of Fear
   Without the individual's and business freedom to choose the best response and act economically freely, the outcome is that inaction overcomes the desire for action, in the expectation that time will make the situation better or magically heal it, which has not happened as of now.

The Global Economics of Film Making and Marketing

Hollywood Attacks...!

The US film-making market has greatly increased its production, acceptance, and ROI worldwide. Most recently, French television reported that nearly 47% of all movies currently on an European cinema room are American made, highlighting featured action, drama, violence, and thrilling topics. The average is computed in relation to all countries in Europe, including the entire European Union, the United Kingdom, and Eastern Europe. France came second with just over 35% of the market, followed by Germany, England, and Eastern Europe countries in much smaller percentages.

Beyond movie corporate revenue aggregate economics (i.e., onto a macro-economic model), the featured impact of Hollywood on economy relies on the fact that Holywood stars contribute to art societies and related charities, infant adoptions, and many actors seldom worry about getting their income tax return check.