_Even with sluggish global growth and a double-dip recession forming at home, expanding mobile trends will continue.  Even homeless people are walking around with smart phones these days.

Big tech companies that missed the boat see the writing on the wall, too, and are scrambling to secure a position in the mobile computing market.  Some are selling off legacy lines of business and changing their focus.

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Many people feel badly this holiday season about what they can’t do for, or provide to, their families.

The big question is do they feel badly enough, that on December 26th before sunrise, they will be determinedly at work learning a new trade, developing a more valuable and marketable skill, seeking a better job, starting a business on the side, or otherwise striving to be sure that the next time the Santa season rolls around, they are better able to enjoy it and give their family a top experience?

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America has lagged behind much of the world in terms of digital wallets.  Elsewhere, people routinely use phones instead of credit cards.  There are several reasons for this.

Partly, it is because North America saw mobile phones so early.  When other regions finally rolled out mobile phones, infrastructures were more modern.  The larger reason, however, is that there is so much at stake.

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Smart investors have always looked to international markets for specific opportunities and diversification.  Today the reasons for investing in emerging international markets are far more compelling than they were in the past.

The reasons are simple.

In the old days, economies tended to develop independently.  There was international trade but empires and societies accumulated capital and increased productivity within relatively defined borders.  Today, globalization is breaking down borders at an increasingly rapid rate.  Electronic communication and improved transportation allow individuals on opposite sides of the globe to work as if they were in adjacent cubicles.  The Internet has put the tools of the most developed economies of the world within reach of the poorest.

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The internal-combustion engine, used in almost every automobile on the road, is an engineering marvel.  From primitive beginnings in the late 1800s, it has become indispensable.

For millions in the developed world, it is inconceivable to not own one.  On the other hand, the great dream of rising middle classes in the developing world is to afford one.
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According to a recent study, 40% of the natural gas producers in the U.S., did not obtain break-even.  This reflects that natural gas producers have costs all over the map.

In the same study, it is reported that you only need a natural gas price of only $1.60 to make it attractive because natural gas comes with liquids like butane that can be sold for a high price today.
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Right now, we are in the early stages of an epic transformation in how we use computers.

The first three decades of growth in personal computing were concentrated on the desktop or its more mobile variant, the notebook.  Those that invested in the Intels and Dells during the early phases of the PC boom made fortunes.
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Due in part to the ballooning U.S. deficit, America’s replacement for the shuttle program, Constellation, has been cancelled.

Once the last space shuttle mission is completed this summer (circa 2011), American’s will be riding on Russian rockets to get to the International Space Station.

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Even thought the economy is sluggish, there are sectors that boom by benefiting from breakthrough technology that generate consumer demand.

The creation of transformational technologies on mobile platforms and the resulting growth of wireless data networks provides an example of a sector poised to boom.

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Since early breakthroughs in electrical distribution leading back to Edison and Tesla, electricity has taken the burden off of human muscle power for household chores, granting us appliance-created leisure time. It has lit the dark of night with the flick of a switch. By powering global communications networks, it has lit our minds, as well. With few keyboard inputs, we have access to more information than any previous generation in history.

Unfortunately, the current power grid is a dinosaur tracing its roots back to early grid projects in the late 1800s. From that time on, the U.S. power grid grew in something of a haphazard, piecemeal fashion — but did it grow!

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