It is easy for us all to get caught up in our lives. It is also very easy to think that times have never been worse in the world, that the world problems of ‘our time’ are more serious than in the past. As a futurist, I try to look closely at the present, but from the perspective of the rhythms or waves of history and recent history to best get a clear view of the near future.

Leaving a U.S. full of news stories about Korean missiles, new killings in the Middle East [no real surprise there], civil war and terrorism in Iraq, fear of terrorism at home and a drifting and incompetent Presidency, I flew to Germany for a vacation trip with my son, starting with 6 days in Berlin.

Berlin is simply the most impressive city I have seen in a long time, but I will write about that in coming posts, as it truly feels like a city of the future. For now, let’s take a look at what I saw in one day within walking distance of my hotel.

First, an outdoor exhibit that has been up for 9 years called “The Topography of Terror” that is in a park-vacant lot that used to be the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS. In exact and chilling historical detail this exhibit told the history of the two darkest parts of the Third Reich, profiled a number of victims as examples and then told the story of the Nuremberg …

All the yellow cards, red cards, fake injuries and head butts aside, the recently completed World Cup was a magnificent global phenomenon. The world came together around the single biggest sporting event on earth. It has always been the quadrennial big event, but this time there was a certain amplification that was different.

The first thing to point out is that, in the four years since the World Cup of 2002, there has been a growing recognition that we are all part of a global economy. Friedman’s “The World is Flat” came out in 2005. Every day there seems to be a story about either India or China and their exploding economies and how these economies are linking up with the United States and other countries. Also how these, and other economies, with their growth have put upward pressure on the price of energy and most commodities. Certainly in the United States, and I would venture to say in most countries, there is more of a sense of being a global citizen than in 2002. Since then, there have been tens, if not hundreds of millions of new high speed Internet connections to homes and businesses, and the number of people using wireless devices with net connectivity and video around the world has soared. All this made the World Cup 2006 more of an inclusive and readily available event than ever before.

 The second thing to point out is that in the United States, the ratings soared over those in 2002. Most …

Earlier this week I made a post on William Yeh, a man who personifies disintermediation, in this case the final step of disintermediation in the stock brokerage business.  Since that time, people have asked me about why he could do what he is doing, how he could stay in business with prices that are more than 50% lower that all the ‘low cost’ brokers.  Mr. Yeh gave an interview to a fellow blogger, Grant Wittenborn and his blog the other day.  I just read it and recommend it to those who have a curiosity about how William Yeh could take such a bold action.

Also a tip of the hat to William Yeh for giving a direct interview to a blogger, this guy clearly sees the direction that the world is going. 

As regular readers of this blog know, I have been exploring the subject of disintermediation.  It is a dynamic force that has and will be reorganizing our culture and economy.  In an early post on the subject, I pointed out that in the late 1990s the Internet acted as the agent of disintermediation for the travel and stock brokerage business.  It became possible for people to buy and sell stocks on-line at a fraction of the cost they had incurred even years earlier.  This helped launch the day trading phenomenon.

Well, it now seems that the last bit of disintermediation is going to occur in the on-line stock trading and investment marketplace.  Today it was announced that a new on-line brokerage company has been launched.  It is called SogoInvest, www.sogoinvest.com and it will offer real-time trades for $3.00 down to $1.00.  That is profound, as all the other major on-line brokerages are in the range of $7 – 12 a trade.  This means that the last step in economic disintermediation has just occurred.

 In addition, this new company will allow investors to buy and sell fractional shares of stock.  For example, if you think Google is a good investment, but you can’t afford 100 shares at $400, you just buy say $3,000 or any amount of Google.  This opens up stock trading and investing to anyone, which is another part of disintermediation, opening a market to anyone that wants to participate.  To that end, there are no minimums to open …