What a day!  President Barack Obama is the 44^th President of the United States.  This will be a day that will go down in history as an inflection day.  Today is a day when the United States and the world changes course and move in a new direction.

Yes President Obama is the first African American to become President and that is a truly momentous event given the history of race in American.  There is no question that this is an event that not only moves America to the next stage of racial harmony but also signals that fact to the world.  It can not be overstated that this achievement opens a new chapter for a country whose democracy stands for equality under the law with freedom and justice for all.  The symmetry with Dr. King’s birthday cannot be overstated.

Expectations and optimism lead to new beginnings.  For those who think the world will change, it will.  Change can be profound and incremental.  Many think that the euphoria will wear off and things will return to partisanship and bureaucracy.  To some degree they will be right.  It is important to keep in mind how even small changes can move individuals and countries in totally new directions.

Motivational and self help gurus talk about how if someone just makes a 10% change in effort or direction each year, that in several years they will be in an entirely different place living an entirely different life.  Well it is quite clear that President Obama, his …

It is interesting that central to the U.S. view of the global economy is the inauguration of President Obama and the passage of a historic stimulus package by Congress.  Given that the world is awash in economic fear the potential for hope and a sense of direction has been hard to find.  Since the current economic meltdown is something we want to change, and since that word has been synonymous with Obama, there is a lot of hope for a good start to his Presidency, and in his stated desire for a $1 trillion dollar stimulus package over the next two years.

As all prognosticators look ahead to this new year, it is clear that the place to look for our financial future for the next couple of years is Washington, not New York .

Politicians of both parties and most U.S. citizens are so scared or nervous about the economy melting down even further that there seems to be wide support for the Federal Government to spend whatever is necessary to get us out of this mess before it becomes even more catastrophic.  I find it interesting that economists of all stripes have come together is a loose consensus that the way out of this dangerous economic situation is massive spending by the government.  I certainly don’t disagree, but I have significant reservations about what Congress will pass and President Obama will ultimately sign.

The position here is that if the U.S., and therefore to a great degree the global economy is …

This is not a column about Cole Porter, the great Broadway composer who wrote the wonderful song “Night and Day”.  This column is about climate change and the urgent need for humanity to dramatically alter its’ energy equation.

At a recent global climate change summit in Poland, John Kerry, the ranking U.S. representative told the world community that the difference  on the issue of climate change between the incoming Obama administration and the soon to be history Bush administration will be like “night and day”.  He emphasized the commitment that Obama will have for facing global warming, creating alternative and renewable energy businesses and working closing with nations of the world in this area.  He compared that to the horrendous, head in the sand, petroleum loyal and anti science Bush administration and promised the world that America is ready to again join the rest of the world in facing these key issues.

There is no doubt that Kerry’s words will be proven to be true.  It is hard to imagine a less committed administration in the area of alternative energy, and all the complexities of the climate change issue than the Bush administration.  History will not be kind to the Bush administration in the area of energy and climate change.  In the next 15 years the global transportation, construction, production and land use market sectors will undergo incredible transformation.  There is more change in front of us for the next 15-20 years in these areas than in the last 50 years.

Historians in …

We are coming to an end of the greatest financial age of sports in history.  The twelve years between 1996 and 2008 were years when the money around sports exploded beyond any precedent era.  This also means that, going forward, the economics around sports in general will decline, at least for the next 5-8 years if not longer.

The bookends for these 12 years of explosive financial growth are the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and the Beijing Olympics of 2008.  The Atlanta Olympics were the first post-cold war Olympics and, being held in the U.S. created a huge marketing platform.  The Beijing Olympics was the coming out party for the most populous country in the world and gave  recognition to China as a major player on the world’s geopolitical and financial stages.

In 1996 cable television had become a dominant media force in the U.S.  ESPN, and all of its networks, was beginning to take its’ place as the behemoth of sports television.  Regional sports networks, TBS and TNT soon joined the party and it seemed that sports were everywhere on TV.  The broadcast networks and all of these cable entities competed for the rights of all major sports.  The fees paid to the NFL, MLB, the NBA, and the college football conferences exploded.  This led to dramatically increased player salaries, advertising rates and, for the consumer, rapidly increasing cable bills.  Of course it also led to much lower ratings as nothing was special any more.  Even though Monday Night Football on …

As a futurist, I view the financial crisis that exploded last week from a high level, long term perspective.  The macro forces that are reshaping our world must be considered when such a crisis occurs.  In addition this particular crisis will force us to reevaluate long held economic ideals that may no longer have validity in their purest forms.

It is important to state that there are many traceable causes to this crisis. It is these particulars that politicians and those that need to blame something or someone will focus on as a way to justify a point of view or to seek retribution.  There will be much argument about who is to blame and what needs to be done to protect the U.S. and global financial system from further meltdown.  This is an important discussion to have, as long as there is perspective and an honest desire to right the ship rather than to just be right.

There have been financial crises in the past that can be looked at for guidance and for reassurance.  Guidance in how to handle what now confronts us, and reassurance that we can and will weather this crisis.  The Great Depression has been mentioned a lot this past week, as it was the specter of such a calamity that provoked the actions made by the Fed and the Treasury Department .  This was due in part to the fact that Ben Bernanke is regarded as an authority on this historical economic event.  Perhaps a more …