Greece

Link Roundup 10/10/2013

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We need a name for this thing.  Where are we?

  • Agendas of SHIELD got picked up for a full season despite mediocre results (and yours truly is NOT impressed).  That’s a bet on Whedon, let’s see where it goes.
  • John Malone wants to compete with Netflix – by banding together cable companies.  An interesting suggestion and a reminder that there’s a lot of power out there that could oppose Netflix.  Will it happen . . . I have no idea.  Could provide a market shakeup – and quite a few job opportunities I imagine . . .
  • Smartphones are getting larger, tablets are getting smaller.  Which suggests some kind of convergence along with a heavy dose of the incredibly obvious.  Also a pain for programmers and media producers trying to deal with the insane footprints.
  • Actually one player in smartphones is Samsung, and they along with other companies in Aisa are targeting Silicon Valley.  Beyond the opportunities in Silicon Valley for employment it keeps cementing the Valley’s reputation (especially as I think it’s splitting a bit between SF and Silicon Valley properly).
  • Maybe you’re looking at a startup, and Amazon wants to support you.  That’s a smart move for them with all the services they provide and the opportunities people need.  May even be useful for you.
  • From success to failure, it looks like Blackberry may end up being taken to pieces.  OK gang, if you’re there you know it’s time to go, and if someone buys a chunk of it that could change opportunities.
  • Game developer?  Valve is hosting a developer-only event for their Steam Machines.  You know you want to go . . . even if you’re not a developer.  Damn it.
  • If Washington doesn’t crash the world economy there’s more hope with a decline in Greek Youth Unemployment, though it’s still pretty bad.

– Steven “Smartphone Tablet” Savage.

Sunday Morning Geekonomics

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Well I’m up early, had to call people for Father’s Day, and of course, check in on the economic news.

First, the Greek elections are happening – again – and this pretty much determines the fate of the country, the Euro, and the world economy.  A BBC roundup is here.

I’m not exactly enthused about the chances for this to work out – my suspicion is that everyone involved wants to keep kicking this can down the road until there’s some kind of soft landing or until the rest of the world economy picks up.  No one wants to be the one holding the bag when/if things melt down, so I’m not seeing a lot of political courage here.

Barry Ritholz has a delayed column on the housing market, and he’s got some interesting analysis.  In general the housing market seems to be depressed for awhile – he says 3-5 years, I’m betting in some areas as high as 10.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/

Greece Leaving The Euro?

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OK I’ll put on my Robe and Economist’s Hat and note we’ve got a nice article here on what happens if Greece leaves the euro – or gets kicked out.  Basic result is it hurts, but also people pull money out of other troubled Euro countries, probably putting it into Germany.  Most of this is due to one of Paul Krugman’s predictions, which people tend to listen to.

I’m feeling Krugman is actually too negative on how this could play out (it’s summarized at the article), but it’s still going to end badly for someone(s).  The real question is how the pain is spread out and which politicians want to watch things go to hell on their watch.  In short, I can see things being drawn out in the hope of a soft landing that pushes these possible scenareos out into the future, it’s just that the question of “can we kick people out of/do we leave the euro” is going to come up eventually.

This is made further complicate by the Greek political situation, which I have had trouble figuring out for years.  I’m not exactly sympathetic to Greece’s situation, let’s put it that way, though I’m anti-Austerity.

What this means for us in the U.S. is that the world economy, at any time, could have some nasty shakeup as the Euro kicks people out, gets left, new austerity measures go into place, politics change, etc.  I’m not sure what role the U.S. is taking, if any, to try and sort this mess out – it’d be very useful to do some digging.

So U.S. recovery aside and other hope, we’ve still got a big chunk of the world having economic problems.  That, in short, could mess things up for everyone else, us included.

Oh, and Canada.  Hey guys.

– Steven Savage