Last weekend I had breakfast with a woman with whom I graduated high school.  Since we had not seen each other since a reunion several years ago there was much to catch up on. The most interesting thing was the fact that her daughter is in the middle of a 27 month deployment as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana.  My friend had a thick photo album of her two visits to Ghana to visit her daughter who was living and working in what can only be described as totally primitive conditions.

To see a bright eyed, blond, happy American dedicating …

[Note:  This is a column reprinted from the current “Shift Age Newsletter” as it is very timely and has already received a lot of positive comment.  If you are not yet a subscriber of the newsletter, please go here and click on FREE subscription]

Those of you who have either read “The Shift Age” or have heard me speak about the Shift Age, know that the accelerating global electronic connectedness is one of the three forces that has, is and will continue to reshape our world.  There are now 4 billion cell phone subscribers in the world.  Facebook has …

In the last column we looked at the general dynamics underlying the reality and need to create an automotive industry in the U.S for the 21^st century. We now take a look at what this industry might look like. An analysis of trends, developing technologies and the role that the federal government can and should play, makes it is clear that this industry will be substantially different than that of the 20^th century.

At the beginning of the 20^th century there were dozens of car companies.  The story of the last century is one of consolidation so that by the 1990s …

The US automotive industry is about to go through a historic transformation.  It is very possible that by the year 2020 we will have largely weaned ourselves off of the pure internal combustion engine.  The key is to make the right decisions about the next 12 years in the next 12 months.  To initiate a transformation of such a huge and critical industry takes planning, investment and a long term view.  Here is a very realistic view of what the US automotive and transportation industry can look like in 2015 and 2020.

The first thing to mention is that there is …