_______________________________________________
- THE FRIDAY LETTER -
(emailed weekly,
from Gilder Publishing,
for friends and subscribers)
_______________________________________________
| http://www.gilder.com/ | Issue 363.0/November 7,
2008
SIGN-UP A FRIEND FOR FREE!
HEADLINES:
- The Week / Miraculous March to the White House
- Friday Feature / Apple's Core Could Soon Include In-House
Chips
- Friday Blogger Bonus / Obamapreneurs
- Readings /
The Week / Miraculous March to the White House
Steve Forbes, Forbes.com (11/06/08): Only the inauguration
remains to formally complete Barack Obama’s astonishing ascension to the U.S.
presidency. Never before in modern American history has a man we really know so
little about and whose political record provides few clues about how he might
actually govern attained the highest office in the land. Neither the triumph of
outsider Jimmy Carter in 1976 nor Harry Truman’s stunning victory in 1948
matches what Obama has wrought. We all fervently hope this man will rapidly
learn the job—assertions to the contrary, no one comes into the Oval Office
ready on day one. Given the credit crisis and resultant recession, as well as
the determination of Iran’s terrorist-supporting mullahs to develop nuclear
weapons, he must pursue prudent approaches that will foster a quick economic
recovery and should be determinedly decisive with Iran instead of dithering, as
this Administration has been.
One area in which the President-elect can do immediate,
immeasurable good is to vigorously declare for a strong and stable dollar. The
ricocheting greenback has been devastating, both in enabling the housing bubble
to reach its obscene size and in inhibiting business investment. If, as
expected, Obama convenes an economic summit of notables such as Paul Volcker
and an array of business and labor leaders and academicians to discuss what
should be done, he also could announce a few other things: that he will suspend
mark-to-market rules, which have gratuitously and so severely damaged bank
balance sheets; reinstate the uptick rule on short-selling; and consistently
enforce the rule against naked short-selling. Taxes? Declare he will revisit
that subject late in 2009, after the economy is growing again.
A number of entrepreneurs and business executives who
supported the Illinois senator tried to reassure doubters not to pay too much
heed to his redistribute-the-wealth rhetoric, that at heart Obama is a
success-oriented centrist. One test of this to-be-hoped-for moderation will be
his handling of the issue of solely using card check for union-organizing. This
would do away with the secret ballot when workers are deciding if they want to
be unionized. Workers would merely sign a card saying they are in favor of
being unionized. This is an open invitation to intimidation and coercion from
workplace and outside activists. People will often sign a pro-labor petition because
they’ve been pressured to do so but will vote against the proposition in the
subsequent secret ballot. Another part to this initiative is mandatory
arbitration: If management does not agree to a labor contract with a newly
unionized unit after 120 days, an outside arbitrator can dictate the terms of
the contract. Naturally these arbitrators know on which side their bread is
buttered—they won’t get the job unless they’ve been approved by the unions.
All this would be disastrous, particularly for small
and startup businesses.
Labor and Democratic Party leaders are salivating at
the prospect of using card check to force the biggest expansion of unionized
workers since the 1930s. They believe this would generate hundreds of millions
of dollars in new dues that could be diverted for political agitation, thus
making liberal Democrats—who are pro-labor—the majority party for the
foreseeable future. While paying lip service to the idea, will President-elect
Obama use his political skills to sidetrack or, more likely, water down this
un-American proposal, made easier by Democrats not gaining a filibuster-proof
Senate?
Health care is another worrisome area. During the
campaign Senator Obama repeatedly spoke about the need for more government
involvement. His idea of government-sponsored insurance policies for people not
on Medicaid or Medicare and who can’t afford private insurance would eventually
drive the private sector out of health care because of the government-sponsored
companies’ low, subsidized rates.
Another nationalization subterfuge is the massively
expanding State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). This program was
originally designed by the Clintons in the 1990s to help make sure that
children from low-income families had some health insurance. During this
session of Congress, however, Democrats passed legislation exponentially
widening the scope of SCHIP to include children and adults from some
middle-income families. President Bush vetoed it. Democrats never hid their
real agenda: utilizing SCHIP as a major step in having government take over the
health care system.
Such slow-motion nationalization would eventually kill
innovation in new medicines and procedures, just as it has done in Europe and
elsewhere. It would also lead to long waiting lines for surgeries and to
shortages in and rationing of treatment and equipment….
Read on:
http://www.forbes.com/opinions/forbes/2008/1124/023.html
|
The Gilder Telecosm Forum To
learn how to join this powerful network of talented, tech-savvy investors and
thinkers online daily to debate, discuss, and decode new and emerging
technologies and share valuable and actionable investment advice, visit www.Gildertech.com today. |
Friday Feature / Apple's
Core Could Soon Include In-House Chips
Brian
X. Chen, Wired (11/06/08):
Recent moves by Apple suggest that the phone and
computer manufacturer wants to reduce its dependence on Intel by branching out
into a new market: chip manufacturing.
The company has
already signaled its intent to make chips for mobile devices, such as the
iPhone, by its April acquisition of semiconductor company PA Semi. Now, the
recent hire of former IBM executive Mark Papermaster -- a key player in
developing the PowerPC chips used in the previous generation of Macs --
suggests that Apple has bigger plans, perhaps including manufacturing its own
desktop and notebook chips. That broad move will likely come later in the
future, as it'll be a substantial investment of both time and money. But such a
transition is inevitable since the company is already working on a mobile
processor, explained Rob Enderle, an industry analyst at Enderle Group.
"Steve Jobs
in particular is all about control, and in this situation he doesn't have
enough of it," said Enderle, who noted that Apple has $25 billion in the
bank to make major changes.
The idea of Apple
taking control of processor production makes sense. Jobs is known for keeping
tight control over the company's products; the corporation enjoys being the
sole provider of its premium-branded Macs, iPhones and iPods. However, it's
highly dependent on Intel for the CPUs used in its desktop and notebook
computers. The silicon brain at the heart of the iPhone is made by ARM, another
large semiconductor company.
Breaking dependence
from Intel and ARM would be similar to what Apple did in the past with
PortalPlayer, a company that developed a chip and software used in the original
iPod. Apple eventually developed its own iPod software and ditched
PortalPlayer's chip for Samsung's by the time the fourth-generation iPod came
out.
Though Apple
tends to keep its mouth shut about future plans, Jobs' desire to create his own
iPhone chip is no secret. In a June interview with the New York Times, the CEO acknowledged that Apple in April acquired
PA Semi to produce a mobile processor. Incidentally, Intel's upcoming Moorestown platform is shaping up to be a
must-have in future mobile devices -- and a strong competitor to ARM -- which
is why Apple needs Papermaster's help to move fast before Intel locks up the
mobile chip market.
"The nature
here is that Apple has never liked to be at a disadvantage against a single
vendor," said Enderle. "Intel is a sole source ... and that would
really irk Steve Jobs. He would want to fix that, and that would motivate him
to move away from Intel and create his own solution."
Recruited by Apple on Tuesday, Papermaster will be serving as senior vice
president of Devices Hardware Engineering, reporting directly to Steve Jobs.
IBM, too, thinks
Apple has plans to make its own computer processors. And because of that, Big
Blue doesn't want Papermaster to leave: In fact, the company is suing Apple in
an effort to keep him.
ThinkPanmure
analyst Vijay Rakesh said it would be challenging for Apple to manufacture
computer chips, but he noted the company's focus is hardware, and making its
own chips is definitely a goal.
"They have
all the technology in-house with software, but the actual chips are
outsourced," Rakesh said. "I think they'll probably do something
about that."
So there you have
it: New chips in the future iPhones and Macs. What does that mean to consumers…?
Read the Complete Article:
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/11/new-hire-will-d.html
__________________________________________
Friday Blogger Bonus / Obamapreneurs
Rich Karlgaard, Forbes.com “Digital
Rules” blog (11/24/08): Living
in Silicon Valley, one is surrounded by friends and colleagues who love the
risks and thrills of entrepreneurship. Most of these dreamers and doers would
sooner call Jack Kevorkian than be forced to live outside an entrepreneurial
climate. Yet many of them just did the unthinkable: They voted for the most
left-wing candidate to ever be elected President of the U.S.
When asked about
this apparent contradiction they say fuzzy things like: "Well, Barack
Obama is a symbol of the future" or "Obama is good for America's
brand in the world." The best argument in this vein is put forth by
Forbes.com Opinions Editor Tunku Varadarajan and embraced by many Silicon
Valley immigrants: Obama would sever the link between Western civilization and
whiteness. That would make Western civilization go down easier among nonwhite
people.
I hope that's
true. But how does one reconcile the comfort of a cool-headed multicultural
Obama with his own nasty words on trade (on which Silicon Valley depends) and
economic redistribution (which is antithetical to Silicon Valley's
meritocracy)? Why do the Obamapreneurs in Silicon Valley think he will be good
for entrepreneurship…?
Read On:
http://www.forbes.com/opinions/forbes/2008/1124/031.html
__________________________________________
Readings /
Does Green Energy Add 5 Million Jobs? Potent Pitch, but
Numbers Are Squishy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122601449992806743.html
Savvy Geek Buyers
Opening
the Cloud
http://www.technologyreview.com/web/21642/?a=f
Microsoft Tries to Steal
Verizon Deal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122601623516906863.html
3G Tethering Coming to iPhone
http://gizmodo.com/5078562/confirmed-3g-tethering-coming-to-iphone
NetApp Embraces
8-Gig Fibre Channel
http://www.byteandswitch.com/document.asp?doc_id=167312&WT.svl=news1_6
__________________________________________
Friday Letter Editor: Mary Collins George / mcollins@gilder.com
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
The Friday Letter is mailed each week to more than 40,000-plus
subscribers and friends of Gilder Publishing, including industry leaders,
financial professionals and individual investors. For information about
advertising, contact Lauren Klopacs at lklopacs@forbes.com.
PLEASE NOTE: The appearance of an advertisement in the Friday Letter
does not indicate an endorsement for the product and/or service by George
Gilder, Gilder Publishing LLC, or the Friday Letter staff.
FEEDBACK AND PROBLEMS
For technical problems, or to send letters to the editor, please
e-mail info@gilder.com.
MAILING ADDRESS
Gilder Publishing, LLC
ATTN: Friday Letter
291A Main Street
Great Barrington, MA 01230
_______________________________________________
The Friday Letter is published weekly for subscribers and
friends of Gilder Publishing. If someone you know would enjoy it, please feel
free to forward a copy.
Gilder Publishing makes the Friday Letter available for free. To
help defray some of the costs of producing this information on a weekly basis,
we will from time to time be sending you offers from companies we think you'll
be interested in. These offers will not come more than once a week. If you do
not wish to receive this related information, please opt out of this process at
the link below and we will not share your name with companies outside of Gilder
Publishing.
To SUBSCRIBE please visit http://www.gilder.com/
To UNSUBSCRIBE please go to http://www.gilder.com/fridayletter/unsubscribe.php
Trouble subscribing or unsubscribing?
Email info@gilder.com
http://www.gilder.com/unsubscribe/specialproducts.php
To SUBSCRIBE please visit http://www.gilder.com/
To UNSUBSCRIBE please go to http://www.gilder.com/fridayletter/unsubscribe.php
Trouble subscribing or unsubscribing?
Email info@gilder.com
_______________________________________________
Copyright 2008 Gilder Publishing LLC