Smart Economy

When will the recession/ depression end? Part 18 Hormones and Boom and Bust Cycles

It turns out that morning testosterone levels in male stock traders have a direct relation to risk aversion and profitability. Susan Pinker, the author of Sexual Paradox, describes the study done by John Coates, that shows a direct relationship between elevated testosterone levels in male traders in the morning and increased profits and risk aversion. That begs the obvious question. If you extend that testosterone effect across a firm, say Leahman Brothers, and  then across the industry, which is primarily male dominated, does it lead to increased industry-wide "irrational exuberance" over time and unwarranted risk-taking, which culminates in a boom and an eventual bust? Women traders are more risk averse and cautious.

The TV commentatoror asked Pinker, if it would have been better if Leahman Brothers were Leahman Sisters. No, said Pinker. Women in senior positions in regulatory agencies would have been a better safeguard, concludes Pinker.

Walter Derzko, Smart Economy, Toronto,

Author of the soon-to-be-released book: Hard Times Golden Opportunities.. about opportunity recognition in a recession/ depression features 45 opportunity scenarios.

 

Related Recession / Depression Posts

When will the recession / depression end ? Part 17 Recap from the World Economic Forum in Davos

When will the recession end? Part 16 It's all over, well sort of.

When will the recession end? Part 15 Year-end predictions for 2009 starting to come true

When will the recession end? Part 14 Four options for America's race to the bottom

When will the recession end? Part 13 Thirteen economic questions that economists can't answer

When will the recession end? Part 12 Bad times are good times for startups

When will the recession end? Part 11 Bank of Canada optimism

When will the recession end? Part 10, The Conformity Trap or Don't count on your economist for advise

When will the recession end? Part 9 Humor will signal recession /depression bottom

When will the recession end? Part 8 Lessons Learned from the last Post 9/11 recession; designing brilliant winning business models

When will the recession end? Part 7 False signals of recovery

When will this recession end? Part 6 The USA Paradox; Cheer vs Fear vs Transformation

When will the recession end? Part 5 Stop Auto Industry Bailouts, start buying Electric

When will the recession end? Part 4 The double dip housing crash in the USA

When will the recession end? Part 3 The coming collapse of the American Middle Class into an Underclass

When will this recession end ? Part 2 Do you listen to the Optimists or the Pessimists in 2009?

When will this recession end?

82 Signposts to the current Recession Depression Summary from 2008

© 2005-2009

Walter Derzko -"Changing the world, one idea at a time"©

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

The Smart Technology Blog: The Smart Economy -- Read, enjoy, explore, speculate, comment !!

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

• ".....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"-old Japanese proverb
• ".......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to." -- H. Mumford Jones
• ".......Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  --A. Einstein
• ".......Change is difficult, but complacency and stagnation are surefire showstoppers..." --Walter Derzko

• ".......Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."  -- Margaret Mead

• ".......Small minds discuss people; Average minds discuss events; Great minds discuss ideas; --Anon

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

 

Happy 1st Birthday to the Smart Economy Blog; Announcing a new Web site, Monthly workshops and webinars

Today marks the 1st anniversary of the Smart Economy Blog. We've received many encouraging feedback & emails from our readers over the past year and good suggestions from positive-focused critics for future improvements.

• According to Pingpoat, The Smart Economy Blog is worth  is $1011.17!  per day
• Inbound links: 1085
• Technorati rank: 34,021

So today, I'm announcing a series of new "smart" initiatives that we will be kicking off in October 2006.

The Smart Economy is growing exponentially and so are we, right along with it.

Smart Economy Learning Series-monthly workshops in Toronto

Starting in October 2006, we will be launching a monthly series of one-day workshops on topics that our blog readers say interest them. These include:

• Latest Tools for Advanced Environmental Scanning, Managing Information Overload and Sense-making ( October 12, 2006, BCE Place Toronto) email me asking for a registration form
• Lateral thinking in business  (Date TBA)
• Developing foresight in your business or industry  (Date TBA)
• Resolving conflicts and disputes using lateral thinking (Date TBA)
• The Opportunity Clinic --Scanning your business environment for Opportunities(Date TBA)
• The Idea Lab --Designing smart products and services that will drive business development forward (Date TBA)
• Introduction to Business Development --Tracking emerging technologies as threats or opportunities for your business (Date TBA)
• Technology Assessment for Investment Professionals & High Tech Startups (Date TBA)
• Building a Busines Case for Smart Devices, objects and services (Date TBA)
• Designing winning business modles for Smart Technologies (Date TBA)

Register today, since space will be limited. Past workshops have sold out quickly.

The Smart Economy Web Page

We are finally in the last stages of planning and constructing our new web site for the Smart Economy. Watch out for launch date soon.

The Smart Economy Webinar Series.

Also starting in October 2006, we will host a monthly opportunity for our blog readers to phone in and participate in a "live seminar" which will include power-point slides and a Q&A session, all from the comfort of your PC or laptop. It will be on some current topic related to the smart economy and some rising smart technology that will be coming into prominence soon. This will be a subscription based series.... We will try to keep the price reasonable so that everyone can participate. Subscription information & schedule will be out soon. Watch for announcements.

Thanks again for all your ideas and keep the feedback coming in.

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Strategic Foresight,, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an in house presentation on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"- old Japanese proverb

.......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to. - H. Mumford Jones

"Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  A. Einstein

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Looking for Feedback on the Smart Economy Blog

Today is a bit of an anniversary for the Smart Economy. Since I started on this blog last Fall (Sept 15th, 2005 to be exact), I've posted 500 entries (this is # 501). We've received over 100 comments online and many more private direct emails. Our daily traffic is growing steadily month by month, as word spreads about The Smart Economy. Many other influential and popular web sites, trend syndication services and blogs now link back to us.

• According to Pingpoat, The Smart Economy Blog is worth is $1011.17!  Per day
• Inbound links: 1085
• Technorati rank: 34,021

I'd like to hear feedback from you --- our blog readers. How can we improve this site?

• what do you enjoy reading about smart technologies?
• what else would you like to see?
• what don't you like? what annoys you?
• what suggestions do you have for future topics?
• what  would you like to see more coverage of?
• do you use RSS? would you subscribe to a Smart Economy RSS  news feed?
• would you like to hear news about the smart economy on your Mp3 player?
• would you like a one-stop-shop to purchase smart technologies?
• would you find road maps for smart technologies useful for your worK?
• would you subscribe to a monthly online seminar (webinar) on smart technology?
• would you find workshops on smart technology topics useful?
• how do you use our information? investment decisions? strategic decisions? alliance decisions? other?

Post your replies or comments in the comments box below or send me a private email

I look forward to hearing from you.

Enjoy the rest of 2006 and 2007 and I hope to see you back here on a regular basis.

All the best !!

Walter Derzko

How Long Will America Lead the World? and who is Next ?

Once in a while you read a story that you just want to share with everyone....I ran across such a piece in NewsWeek today -by Fareed Zakaria called: How Long Will America Lead the World?

The United States is still the dominant force in technology, innovation, productivity and profits.  But Americans don't quite realize how fast the rest of the world is catching up.

[here are some key points from the article-Walter Derzko]

[ ]

....Well, Americans have replaced Britons atop the world, and we are now worried that history is happening to us.  History has arrived in the form of "Three Billion New Capitalists," as Clyde Prestowitz's recent book puts it, people from countries like China, India and the former Soviet Union, which all once scorned the global market economy but are now enthusiastic and increasingly sophisticated participants in it.  They are poorer, hungrier and in some cases well trained, and will inevitably compete with Americans and America for a slice of the pie.....

[ ]

.....Much of the concern centers on the erosion of science and technology in the U.S., particularly in education…..[   ].... China and India combined graduate 950,000 engineers every year, compared with 70,000 in America; that for the cost of one chemist or engineer in the U.S. a company could hire five chemists in China or 11 engineers in India; that of the 120 $1 billion-plus chemical plants being built around the world one is in the United States and 50 are in China…[   ].... "More people will graduate in the United States in 2006 with sports-exercise degrees than electrical-engineering degrees,".....

[ ]

.......The genius of America's success is that the United States is a rich country with many of the attributes of a scrappy, developing society.  It is open, flexible and adventurous, often unmindful of history and tradition.  Its people work hard, putting in longer hours than those in other rich countries.  Much of this has do to with the history and culture of the society.  A huge amount of it has to do with immigration, which keeps America constantly renewed by streams of hardworking people, desperate to succeed.  Science laboratories in America are more than half filled with foreign students and immigrants.  Without them, America's leadership position in the sciences would collapse. That is why America, alone among industrial nations, has been able to do the nearly impossible: renew its power and stay at the top of the game for a century now.  We can expand our science programs --and we should --but we will never be able to compete with India and China in the production of engineers.  No matter what we do, they will have more, and cheaper, labor.  What we can do is take the best features of the America system--openness, innovation, immigration and flexibility- and enhance them, so that they can respond to new challenges by creating new industries, new technologies and new jobs, as we have in the past."...

[ ]

Our greatest danger is that when the American public does begin to get scared, they will try to shut down the very features of the country that have made it so successful.  They will want to shut out foreign companies, be less welcoming to immigrants and close themselves off from competition and collaboration.  Over the past year there have already been growing paranoia on all these fronts.

[Some of the reactive knee-jerk reactions ----Some US senators are proposing to embed RFID Chips in USA Immigrants & Guest workers. Dubai Ports was blocked by USA congress to manage US ports, even though most people don't realise that Vancouver's port is managed by Dubai Ports. The Dutch have taken a hard line, banning Islamic women from wearing their traditional burkas. Canadian politicians are contemplating banning tourists from Parliament Hill in Ottawa after the arrest of a terrorist cell in Toronto, Canada-Walter Derzko]

[   ]

If we go down this path, we will remain a rich country and a stable one.  We will be less troubled by the jarring changes that the new world is pushing forward.  But like Britain after Queen Victoria's reign, it will be a future of slow, steady national decline.  History will happen to us after all.

Overall, an enjoyable read in Newsweek

..best quote in the story ?    "Only the paranoid survive."--Andy Grove

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an inhouse presentation on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"

- old Japanese proverb

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

United Technologies & Lafarge join with WBCSD to Make Energy Self-Sufficient Buildings a Reality-zero energy from external power grids

[Thanks to Mike Jackson from Shapingtomorrow.com for this lead -- Walter Derzko]

Geneva- The World Business Council for Sustainable Development announced that it is forming an alliance of leading global companies to determine how buildings can be designed and constructed so that they use no energy from external power grids, are carbon neutral, and can be built and operated at fair market values.

The industry effort is led by United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX), the world's largest supplier of capital goods including elevators, cooling/heating and on-site power systems to the commercial building industry, and Lafarge Group (NYSE: LR , Euronext: LG), the world leader in building materials including cement, concrete, aggregates, gypsum and roofing.  The WBCSD and the two lead companies are in discussions with many other leading global companies that are expected to join the project and will be announced shortly.

Buildings today account for 40 percent of energy consumption in developed countries according to the OECD.  The effort announced today for transforming the way buildings are conceived, constructed, operated and dismantled has ambitious targets: By 2050 new buildings will consume zero net energy from external power supplies and produce zero net carbon dioxide emissions while being economically viable to construct and operate.

Constructing buildings that use no net energy from power grids will require a combination of onsite power generation and ultra-efficient building materials and equipment.

The project will comprise three phases, each producing reports that together will form a roadmap to transform the building industry.  The first report will document existing green building successes and setbacks, the second will identify the full range of present and future opportunities, and the third will present a unified industry strategy for realizing those opportunities by 2050, specifically in China, India, Brazil the USA and the E.U.

Each report will take one year to complete and involve hearings and conferences with building contractors and suppliers, sustainability experts, government representatives, regulators, utility officials and others.

"Green" buildings already are erected in various parts of the world but current cost structure prevents widespread adoption by general contractors.  The project will build on these examples, aligning costs and benefits in the building equation and by working in close collaboration with architects, builders, suppliers and building owners to promote a more sustainable approach to construction.  Existing standards for energy efficiency in buildings will be the starting point for the industry-led alliance.

"Lafarge has been leading efforts in energy efficiency and sustainable construction in the building materials sector for a number of years, not only by reducing greenhouse gas emissions during the production process but also by developing materials that contribute to making buildings more energy efficient," said Bertrand Collomb, Chairman of Lafarge.

"In this context, Lafarge has been collaborating with leading architects to promote sustainable construction as illustrated by our partnership with French Architect Jacques Ferrier, which led to the development of the 'Hypergreen'concept:

This multi-use tower building, designed for the world's mega-cities, is highly energy self-sufficient thanks to the use of the latest construction methods and technologies."

"Buildings of tomorrow should be self-sufficient in energy and have carbon neutral emissions," said Jan van Dokkum, president of UTC Power, a United Technologies company.

"This can be done by incorporating renewable energy sources into a building's design, optimizing energy efficiency of support systems, and taking advantage of geographic and culturally acceptable building practices.  Additionally, this aim is enhanced by using the 'cradle to cradle' concept of producing, using and later re-using building materials.  This vision of energy and carbon neutral designs is a necessary evolution we need to embrace to achieve sustainability for buildings."

Björn Stigson, President of the WBCSD noted that "being smarter and more efficient about how we use energy in buildings will help us conserve energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change.  We believe this initiative can provide extremely cost-effective solutions.  It will also set the course for self-sufficient and environmentally sound buildings in which future generations will live, work and be entertained.  Our partners are industry leaders with technological expertise and presence that no single existing organization or government could provide on its own.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, based in Geneva, is a coalition of some 190 international companies united by a shared commitment to sustainable development via the three pillars of economic growth, ecological balance and social progress.  Its members are drawn from more than 35 countries and 20 major industrial sectors.

United Technologies Corp., based in Hartford Conn.USA, is a Dow Jones Industrial company that reported $43 billion in 2005 revenues.  UTC employs approximately 220,000 people worldwide and provides high technology

Source: Press release from: United Technologies Corporation 03/29/2006

Also see back posts

April 10, 2006 It takes a village to heat & power your home or workplace > Smart Distributed Power Sources

April 18, 2006 Should industrial & home appliances get Smarter and co-generate & harvest energy?

Sept 20, 2005 24) Smart Net Zero Energy Home unveiled

Oct 19, 2005 75) Smart House for a Cold Climate-Solar Decathlon

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an inhouse presentation on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"

- old Japanese proverb

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Boost your Smart Technology IQ

Increase your Smart Technology IQ

Are you interested in the novel but quietly booming field of Smart Technology?

Are you a novice to the discipline or an old pro? Are smart technologies still under your business radar screen? Confused by all the jargon? opinions? predictions?

We are able to offer your team or organization, a tactile ‘hands-on’ presentation based on the topic and application areas that best suit your interest from our Smart Economy Blog.

We can  provide your group with a general introduction to Smart Technologies or cover a highly specialized and narrow topic area. We can cover the spectrum from Competitive Intelligence to Product Development to Technology roadmaps.

Combined with a health dose of provocative, lateral thinking, our interactive  presentation will get your team inspired and boost their Smart Technology IQ  !!

Suitable for off site or on site training sessions, monthly team or division meetings, research meetings, focus groups and conferences, our presentations can be customized to the needs of different audiences, numbers and special interest areas.

Smart Technology is a tactile subject area and by bringing the audience into physical contact with a wide range of different smart materials and products, our presentation brings to life the subject matter contained in our Smart Economy Blog 

Please contact me for further details.

Walter Derzko  [email protected]

Standard for smart buildings helps first responders

Problem:

In an emergency, one of the biggest problems faced by first responders is a lack of accurate information. Where is the fire within the building? How big is it? Are there flammable chemicals stored nearby?

Smart Solution:

Intelligent" building systems

The best response to a building emergency is a fast and informed one. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the USA is working with the building industry as well as the public safety and information technology communities to achieve both objectives.

NIST researchers are studying how "intelligent" building systems can be used by firefighters, police and other first responders to accurately assess emergency conditions in real-time.

NIST is also working with industry to develop standards to allow manufacturers to create intelligent building systems that use various types of communication networks (including wireless networks) to assist first responders in assessing and mitigating emergencies.

The systems would send information such as building floor plans and data from motion, heat, biochemical and other sensors and video cameras directly to fire and police dispatchers who then can communicate detailed information about the scene to first responders.

NIST recently released video presentations that demonstrate how an "Intelligent Building Response" program would work. The videos outline team efforts to create a system of interoperable data content and communications standards that would link first responders with "intelligent" building systems. Firefighters are shown using laptops to track the spread of a developing fire on a floor plan even before reaching the scene. Other real-time building sensor information includes status information concerning a specific building's mechanical systems, elevators, lighting, security system and fire systems, the locations of building occupants, and temperature and smoke conditions.

Funding:

The Intelligent Building Response research is made possible by funding from the Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) office through NIST's Office of Law Enforcement Standards (OLES). Public safety and building technology representatives are welcome to join the standards development effort. Information on the program and downloadable video presentations are available at http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/ibr

Contact:

John Blair; [email protected]

telephone 301-975-4261

© 2005

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"

- old Japanese proverb

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page.