Feb 10, 2009

IS THE OBAMA ECONOMIC STIMULUS PLAN LEADING TO A DISASTER?

These quotes are being heard in the past 3 weeks, since Obama took office, this is a position that the Republican Party have put into consideration when the Economic stimulus plan is at the congress.

Leaders of the republican party, including John McCain have not heard and clearly understood the message of bipartisanship, they just want to stop the plan by saying to the American people and to the world that passing the Plan, will get America into a disaster they will never recover.

But, the current situation is not a disaster?, maybe for the republicans (from low and high chamber) the financial crisis will be recover by itself, following the theories of the auto regulation of the market, held by Alan Greenspan and strongly supported by Reagan, Bush & Bush Jr administration, are the republicans people who lose their memory? We have to remember that they have lead in the past 28 years to this economic disaster, they have to remember that there were only one shinning spot for the economy (and that was Bill Clinton Government), we have to remember that the public debt has doubled in 8 years, from 5 trillion to 10 trillion? That America is facing the worst results in decades?

Is so funny watching McCain speaking about US $80 bn lost for the implementation of the first part of the US $700bn package proposed by George Bush government, with the support of both the democrat and republicans?

The TARP plan ($700bn package) has not worked as it was proposed by the Republican government, the common people doesn’t know where the money goes, and only the banks who get the bailout get benefit, but what about the 3 million people who lost their jobs or the millions who lost their homes?

The Obama stimulus package is based in the premise of “call for action”, Obama administration is showing to the people that “DOING NOTHING is not option”, instead the republican party have designed parallel plans following the same economic principles who guide to this crisis, one of them, lack of transparency, taxes reduction to big corporations such Exxon Mobile, which in 2007 get approximately US 45bn in net revenue and reducing the budget to research, education and innovation.

Obama, itself has said: “This plan is not perfect, it was made on Washington”, but the great economic team he has (from Timothy Geithner, to Lawrence Summers, Paul Volker, Paul Krugman and many others) give the necessary confidence that the plan is designed to boost the economy and to plan for the long term. For example, the budget on ecosolutions will be doubled in 3 years, the budget for schools will be increased dramatically and the jobs that the Plan will create will be in the private sector (95%) of them.

By the other side, treasury secretary, Tim Geithner said in a recent interview to Bloomberg, that they have re-evaluated the second part of the TARP plan, offering full transparency for the people and how the money flows and what is really impacting, the plan also will have the creation of a bad bank for help clean the toxic balance sheets of the banks, but a great change is the plan will not only be directed to help banks, it will be for the people who struggle to survive in the crisis.
Abraham Lincoln is shaking in his tomb, thinking what had happen to his beloved party, to that party who foster for human rights, for the union of America, for the striving for excellence, but most important the party who always looks for increasing the quality of life for the people leaving their ideological differences.

Luckily, there are some republican senators that will help rebuild the power of America, and I want to thank them, and all the American people will thank them in the incoming future because they follow their instincts to put the conditions of the people first, to improve the situation of the country and to look for a really bipartisanship, which is lacking in these times, thanks to Susan Collins from Maine, to Olympia Snowe from Maine and to Arlen Specter from Pennsilvania.

With the help of the people wanting a better live for their grandsons, the Stimulus plan will pass, and then you can track all the transactions at this site: www.recovery.gov .

So, the republican should ask themselves: Is the republican party leading to a disaster?
If they do this, they will ask then: How we help America recover from the failure in the public policies we have implemented in the past 28 years?

Jan 28, 2009

Two forums searching "A BEST WORLD"... DAVOS Vs World Social Forum


Maybe, many people don’t know about the importance of World Economic Forum or known as DAVOS forum.

We know that DAVOS is considered the number 1 space for great global leaders to meet, from almost 38 years.

The forum is known in academic and economic world, the Mexican speaker Miguel Angel Cornejo said 15 years ago in one of his conferences:

“In Davos, Switzerland, year by year is developed a meeting of economist at global level, there is a very interesting discussion… Who meet in Davos? This year, we have 80 presidents from different nations, we have a Bill Gates, a Bill Clinton, and we have the most distinguished people at global level in business, politics, religion, etc”

But 2009 is a crucial year for Davos & world future.

Changes at Davos are moving faster, this year only one member of Obama administration cabinet or top advisers will be send to the forum, because Obama and his economic team will be very busy negotiating with the republican party the 825bn Bailout to save and boost American economy; this member will be Valerie Jarret (White house senior advisor and assistant to president for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison).

Many multinational companies CEOs will not be in the forum, because they were managing the companies hit by the crisis, as Bearn Sterns, Lehman Brothers and others.

Some parties, (Innovation Businessweek editor Nussbaum said are the key of the event), will be canceled, an example is the cancelation of one of the hottest parties held at Davos, the Goldman Sachs party.

Even that 41 head of state will be there, from Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel & Alvaro Uribe Velez and others; to presidents of multilateral organism as World bank, Interamerican development bank (with the Colombian economist Luis Alberto Moreno, who is going to celebrate the 50 years of the bank at Medellin, Colombia in march 31 of 2009), ONU and others, to Michael Porter, Bono and the always members of the forum: Bill Clinton & Bill Gates.

The main topic will be the global crisis and how to shape the new world, the past DAVOS meeting held in 2008, the discussion was centered in: Will be crisis or recession? , this year the topics covered will be: The new global structure, the environmental policies and the work of the business in shaping a new world.

As Duncan Niederauer, CEO, NYSE Euronext said about the forum: “It’s all going to be about globalization and where we go from here. We’ve had a globalized economy and markets over the past few years and that’s been brought into question given the financial crisis. There’s no going back. Given the financial crisis, I can’t think of a better time for us all to be together. Investor confidence more than anything has been lost throughout the crisis. We’ve got to work together as global leaders to determine how to restore it.”

Many people said that this is an event for the politics, business leaders, academics, economist, “The ELITE of the society”, but we must think and reflex how the decisions or proposals think these days will impact our daily life, that is why I invite you to be pendant of what is going to happen.

So, I will make an analysis about the relevant topics and see what is really happening with the decision makers of the world.

By other side, we should pay attention to DAVOS counterpart, a forum created in Latin America for treat the same topics but with the point of view of New-socialism; in this 9th edition will be 5 Latin-American presidents, including Lula da Silva, because the event will be held in BELME, a Little town in Brazil.

One of the organizers, Francisco Whitaker said about the event: “Davos will meet in a losing environment because the people who are meet there are guilty for nowadays financial situation and are asking what to do”, “We have the right in 2001, with the statement of another world is possible”…”the proposals for create a new world will come from Belem, not Davos”

This is the World Social Forum (FSM, for the meaning in Spanish) 2009.

Okey, thats all, and let the game begins. And see how the 2 approaches came for convert this world a better place.

Jan 23, 2009

Obama + technology + new age Rules : Politics

I was reviewing the Obama stimulus package, after reading an excellent article of businessweek and a friend (Andres Murcia, CEO of CuazArt-Studios) ask me in Google Chat: “ Obama + technology + new age Rules ???”

So, I immediately think in how president Obama has already change the way to do politics and how he is going to start the revolution in Innovation, not only in America, but as inspiration to the entire world.

When Obama began his campaign he used the internet as his pillar for communicate to all the people, with www.barackobama.com, the people can organize events, can know the updates of Obama addresses in all the country, can watch online all his participations during campaign and can see the videos connected with YouTube; Obama supporters also can create a page mybarackobama.com , so they can communicate effectively with the strategist of the campaign and can manage their preferred info and organize actions for contact undecided voters. The page was a success in fundraising, even one day they organize, 1 million in 1 hour, and they do effectively.

When Obama was elected president, they create a new site call www.change.gov , so the people know the plans in deep and participate actively, by entering their stories, by presenting proposals to Obama advisors, by participating with Obama cabinet and giving their opinions in relevant topics as healthcare or minorities (they use Google technology for this issue); this site also have the Obama weekly speeches; One month before Obama took office they created “The Citizens Briefbook” , an online tool for the people to ask direct questions to Obama (with online voting by the same users) and the best will remitted to Obama in person (they used salesforce.com technology for this issue).

By other side, Obama is well known for his personal usage of his Blackberry (a true fan of the device and lover of technology), Research in Motion said if Obama was paid for his promotion he could get a 50 million dollar advertising contract. After a lot of debate about security issues on blackberry for president, National Security Agency (NSA) has allowed Obama to continue use his Blackberry only for personal matters, and instead of that he has to use the Sectera Edge, considered the safest phone in the world.

Right now, the official info of Obama government can be find in www.whitehouse.gov , we should review what new features they are going to implement to continue the communication with the people.

In our next article we will discuss the appearance of the Chief Technology Officer for Obama administration and how the Stimulus package will maintain the innovation and increase the gap with other countries.

Jan 13, 2009

Where the capitalism is heading? - THE AMERICAN WAY

Obama economic stimulus plan is the main concern for U.S right now.
Besides the cruel conflict in Gaza the people are analizing how this plan will affect the live of any american and each citizen of the world.
Several public figures agree with the plan:
Tim O´Reilly (the founder and CEO of the biggest technological publisher, said in his twitter: "Letter detailing Obama's Reforms to Troubled Asset Relief Program sounds promising"
Ben Bernanke (FED CHAIRMAN) said on a conference at London, 13 of January :
"A mammoth stimulus package being crafted by President-elect Barack Obama could give the economy a much-needed lift, but other steps must be taken to bolster the wobbly financial system and for any recovery to stick"

The question many people is asking could be: Does the Obama plan will boost the economy and help me to get out of this crisis?

Right now, the economist have great contradictions and making predictions is foolish.
But, we can put attention to what Bernanke said in that conference: "History demonstrates conclusively that a modern economy cannot grow if its financial system is not operating effectively."

Even if you agree or not with Bernanke policies, we should get into the global debate about the world financial system and the future of Capitalism.

The crisis has shown the weakness of the actual financial system, many experts, think tankers, policy writers and economist are reviewing the Capitalist system and proposing a readaptation or change of the system that has held the world to this crisis.

In a series of articles, we will try to abstract the opinions of some global leaders from different nations and cultures, that will give a broader vision of the problem and the solutions offered to change the Global financial system.

We start with America.

THE AMERICAN WAY

Almost one year ago, in that time Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates, was at Davos Forum, discussing about what he call the "Creative Capitalism".
After that, many people have created forums and debates discussing Gates proposal, now we offer the Key points of his "Creative Capitalism"

When Harvard Business School was celebrating their first century of creation, several figures were invited to speak at the 2008 Harvard Business School summit, and one of them, LAWRENCE SUMMERS, who was Harvard president and now the Director of National Economic Council for president elect Barack Obama; gave an interested speech about "The future of Market Capitalism".

In 1889, Andrew Carnegie (considered the second richest man in human history by FORBES in 2007 and the revolutionary entrepreneur of the steel sector, also known for his philantropic activities such the creation of the national library system, the building of the "Carnegie Hall" and the founding of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Wrote an article about the Capitalism, the distribution of wealth and the future of the philantropy entitled : "Wealth".

This 3 differente characters, from different backgrounds could give us a different approach to financial system in The American Way.



P.D ; Wait for the next article entitled "The reborn of the dragon"

Jan 5, 2009

Davos 2009, The breakthrough the world was looking for...

In 1971 the world lived great difficulties and problems; the Indo-Pakistan war, the Cambodian war, and Bangladesh liberation war, but also it was a year of positive breakthroughs; the foundation of Walt Disney world, Intel released their first commercial microprocessor, the Apollo 15 as the starting point for lunar rovers and the NASDAQ debuts on the stock exchange.

But in Switzerland, 2 key issues with great impact to the modern world happened:

1) In February 7, the women gain the right to vote in the country.
2) Klaus M. Schwab , a very influential Swiss economist create the “World economic Forum” in Davos, as a Non for profit foundation with the goal of gather the most influential people in business, government, NGOs , journalist and intellectuals, each year to discuss the course of the world and the global initiatives for improve the state of the world.

Right now, these meetings, also calls the “DAVOS MEETING”, because of the city were held, is the world most important forum.

2009, is a crucial year, world crisis getting worst each day, loose of millions of jobs, getting into bankruptcy financial institutions and companies from all the sectors, and an overall loose of confidence at global level.

You could find more info about this year meeting, here

http://www.weforum.org/en/events/AnnualMeeting2009/index.htm

“During the five-day meeting, over 2,500 participants from 91 countries will gather in Davos. Around 75% are business leaders, drawn principally from the Forum's members – 1,000 of the foremost companies from around the world and across economic sectors”

Have you ever thought having in the same place: Bill Gates, Gordon Brown, Indra Nooyi, Mark Zuckerberg and Bono in the same place, discussing the global topics?Okay, this is possible in DAVOS MEETING.

All these, combined with the great hope in the new government of President Barack Obama and how he will change the state of the world in 2009.

So, the debate of how Obama administration will improve the state of the world in 2009 is open, I have prepared a short video with information referred to the topic, and as a guide to track the effects of Obama policies around the globe.



In next days I will add more info about the topic, and will give you the outputs of 2009 Davos meeting.
If you have comments, doubts or anything you want to say, leave your comment!

Remember to enter into the debate… why?

Because in 2003, DAVOS MEETING open a space for the general public to discuss the same topics as the global leaders do each year.

Is your opportunity to get active participation in World decisions...

the decision is yours!