1. James Hirsen: Box-Office Winners and
Losers of 2014
2. Joseph Klein: The Sony Cyberattack - A
Preview of Things to Come
3. Michelle Seiler-Tucker: Is Air Travel Safe?
4. John LeBoutillier: How Corrupt is Our Political Class? Has This
Corruption and Rot Spread into the American Leadership Class?
5. Bill Tatro: What's in Store for 2015?
6. Dr. Gerard Lameiro: The New Emerging Drone
Industry
Box-Office
Winners and Losers of 2014
By
James
Hirsen
For
Hollywood executives in charge of running the world's biggest entertainment
factories, 2014 turned out to be the most anxiety-inducing ever. The summer was
an unsettling one in which the box office take for the season was down 25% from
the previous year. To top it off, entertainment business execs wound up the
year by having to endure the day-to-day news of a major studio, Sony,
attempting to cope with a crushing cyber-attack that was launched over the
content of a film. Regarding the 2014 box office as a whole, revenues ended up
being down 5% from the prior year. In terms of movie choices, the public, via
the free market, sent some clear but perhaps not-so-welcome messages to
Hollywood. [more...]
The
Sony Cyberattack - A Preview of Things to Come
By
Joseph
Klein
The
FBI accused the North Korean government last week of perpetrating the
devastating cyberattacks against Sony's computer network for which a group
calling itself the Guardians of Peace took responsibility. The North Korean
government denied the charge and warned of serious consequences if the United
States launched any counter-attack. President Obama ignored the threat,
declaring that the U.S. would respond "proportionally" to what he
characterized as cyberspace "vandalism." [more...]
Is
Air Travel Safe?
Even
before the Indonesia Air Asia flight with 162 people on board went missing, the
year 2014 has seemed ominous for air transportation disasters. Despite this
insinuation, data shows that some 762 people had lost their lives in seven
fatal accidents this year, more than 1,000 lost their lives in 2005 ultimately
proving that aviation is still the safest route to travel by. Even better,
experts say that the industry’s underlying safety record is actually improving.
The statistics underscore a year of tragic contrasts dominated by two Malaysian
catastrophes and a handful of weather-related incidents, yet a record-low
number of crashes. [more...]
How Corrupt is Our Political
Class? Has This Corruption and Rot Spread into the American Leadership Class?
How
corrupt is our political class? Has this corruption seeped into the American
leadership class – in all our institutions, i.e. education, business, religion,
the media, etc.? How weak is American leadership today in the world? As mayhem
spreads, does the United States even have a leadership position anymore? This –
and much more – will be discussed by the POLITICAL INSIDERS. [more...]
What's in Store for 2015?
By Bill Tatro
As
much as each country, from the U.S. to Greece, Russia to Malaysia, sees itself
as a unique and independent entity, the reality is that the world has been
united as one big Keynesian experiment. Social media has taken significant
events that normally would be continually discussed, analyzed and even become
world altering and reduced them to tweets, blogs and yesterday's news. Although
the world’s attention via social media is always directed to the newest crisis,
the reality is that nothing in the past has either been solved or eliminated.
Another few days and the next crisis will be front and center; it will be time
to put all these past problems behind us – after all it’s a new year. [more...]
The
New Emerging Drone Industry
Some
estimates place the commercial value of the use of the new drone technology at
over $10B over the next decade. That might be a very conservative
estimate too, since the technology can be used in so many different
ways. Plus, just think about spin-off technologies and their
values. For example, new drone-ready GPS technology will likely be used,
resulting in additional revenues and profits. A whole new billion dollar
industry? New jobs? New innovation? A boost for GDP?
Better services for consumers? Cool technology, right? American
ingenuity at work building 21st century America? But, why not do the
R&D in America? [more...]
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