A global shift in consciousness has occurred during October.  Trust and confidence have given way to fear and uncertainty. Plans and expectations have been completely altered or dashed altogether.  Governments, entire industries, equity markets and the majority of the adult populations in the developed countries of the world are staring into a financial abyss that has no correlation to anything any of them have experienced (unless they are 80 years or older).

Governments separately, and then in consort struggle to stay ahead of a financial catastrophe they can’t quite fathom.  Hundreds of millions of people feel as thought they have been …

The past few weeks have seen the unfolding of the financial crisis and meltdown of global equity markets.  During this time I have been traveling across North America giving speeches about the future to groups of CEOs and business owners.  In every instance, the primary concern of everyone has been what the short and long term ramifications of the financial crisis will be.  As a futurist I am asked at each presentation what I see ahead for the U.S. and global economy.  With the strong caveat that I am neither an economist nor a financial advisor, I have weighed …

A  column here two weeks ago placed the financial crisis within a historical context. The financial meltdown is part of the disruptive transition from the Information Age to the Shift Age.  We are moving through a period of turmoil when the old order is being replaced by a new order.  The nation state economic model is being replaced by a new global model.  We are at a time when the old ways no longer seem to work and yet the new realignments are not yet clear.

In the United States there have been three great waves that …

More than a year ago, I wrote a column about two damaged brands. One damaged brand was the “Made in China” brand and the other was the well respected financial brand of Wall Street.  At that time China was dealing with the fact that pet food produced in China was killing pets all over the world and that toys produced in China had extremely unsafe levels of lead.  Also at that time Wall Street was beginning to deal with the meltdown of the mortgage backed securities market.

This column immediately came to mind last week.  In the same week …