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![Tech Bisnow]() |
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January 25, 2012 |
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The Best Economy is . . . Detroit? |
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| GlobalNet Services (GNSI) is an IT leader focusing on innovative and cost-effective solutions in software and systems engineering, business intelligence and more. To find out how you can benefit, click here. |
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| Expert forecasters targeted conventional wisdom about DC's sunny local economy yesterday, as 500 people descended on Bisnow's Economic and Political Forecast at The Willard. Our future-seers were about as giddy as a meteorologist predicting a snowstorm. (And not the sadistical ones who are into that sort of stuff.) |
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![American Enterprise Institute scholar Norm Ornstein]() |
If AEI political guru Norm Ornstein ever got sick of political forecasting, his second calling could be stand-up comedy. He opened our event with a round of political jokes:
“When Rick Perry was asked what he would do about the West Bank, he said he would urge it to offer free checking.”
“Michele Bachmann wished Elvis Presley a happy birthday on the anniversary of his death; she then apologized to the entire Costello family.”
“It was a low point for the president when his staff informed him that the inventor of the teleprompter died. He was speechless.” |
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![President Obama]() |
| Despite President Obama having a similar approval rating as Ronald Reagan before he won reelection, the incumbent has an uphill battle. If the economy doesn’t improve or gets worse, the president will have a big hole in his campaign rhetoric. His strategy will have to scare the "#@$% out of people" about the alternative. Norm says his Republican opponent could be anyone at this point, including someone not currently running like Indiana’s Mitch Daniels. He called Mitt Romney’s reluctance to release his tax documents a “colossal PR gaffe.” And Newt Gingrich is making a mistake calling himself anti-establishment, adds Norm, when he’s been nothing but part of the establishment as Speaker of the House and then a major influence peddler in Washington. |
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![GMU professor Steve Fuller]() |
| GMU prof Steve Fuller’s economic assessment isn’t much rosier than Norm’s political forecast. The Washington economy will dip down with federal procurement spending, forcing other industries to take the lead. The region will only see a 1 percent rise in federal spending this year, while we’re used to seeing 8 percent increases: “It’s like hitting a wall at 50 miles per hour.” The region will have to rely on hospitality and health and education, segments that Steve says will continue growing. (It's all about the meds and eds.) |
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![Stephen Fuller]() |
| The Washington area has long led the pack in job growth, being the first to add jobs in April 2010. It was the first area to add net new jobs (new positions) in May 2010. But then net new jobs started to drop off from November 2010 to November 2011 with Detroit adding more than the Washington region. Steve says auto manufacturing is a better core sector than the federal government these days. (We should build carburetors instead of coalitions.) Most of the region’s job growth is people replacing workers who have moved out of the area or retired. “The economy is going to be different here than what we’re used to,” Steve says. Helllooo hotel business. |
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| Arrivederci Overseas Ballot Hassles |
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![Microsoft
e-government director Kim Nelson]() |
| It’s hard to believe that American voters living overseas run into so many glitches: Paper ballots don't get mailed in time, or they go to the wrong address. That won't happen anymore. Issaquah, Wash.-based Democracy Live developed web-based software after legislation cleared the way in 2009 for online ballots. The system runs on Microsoft’s Windows Azure. Voters print and mail them, and they’re customized to each precinct. Microsoft e-government director Kim Nelson (right, rafting with her team) says this year will be the first presidential election with the software in use. So far, 1,200 overseas American voters have printed out and returned ballots. The process is reserved for overseas Americans but Kim says there’s potential to expand it to handicapped voters. (Or everyone who said they'd move to Canada if Barack Obama/George Bush was elected.) |
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Sponsor Spotlight
Quick: Define Degaussing |
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![President and CEO of PC Recycler, Jeremy Farber]() |
| The word of the day—and the time-tested method that can keep your secrets secret—is degaussing. It’s a process using rare earth magnets to eliminate hard drive magnetism, damaging your hard drive’s platters and rendering them useless. President and CEO of PC Recycler Jeremy Farber announces a free webinar on Thursday that will educate you on this most trusted process of data destruction (it’s good enough for the FBI, CIA, and DOD). The company acquired a $100k machine that can degauss 1,800 hard drives per hour (that’s a hard drive killed every three seconds). This way, nobody can have access toyour information in any manner, ever. For extremely sensitive data, don't even think that simple shredding will suffice." The 30-minute webinar is offered on Thursday, Jan. 26, and it’s free. Register here. |
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| What are you crystal ballin' these days? Send economic and political forecasts to tech editor Tania Anderson. |
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This newsletter is a journalistic news source which accepts no payment for featured interviews. It is supported by conventional advertisers clearly identified in the right hand column. You have been selected to receive it either through prior contact or professional association. If you have received it in error, please accept our apologies and unsubscribe below. © 2010, Bisnow on Business, Inc., 1817 M St., NW, Washington, DC 20036. All rights reserved. | | |