There’s a hot new commodity on the market: individuals’ medical records, available literally for pocket change. It’s not only legal, but it’s a thriving industry. In fact, McKinsey & Co. forecasts that the trade in medical data will be a $10-billion annual industry by 2020, driven largely by health agencies’ conversion to electronic medical records...
Tag: winter2014
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Altruism finds its heart on the Internet
Every morning, without fail, my wife turns her attention to the greater good while she sips her first cup of tea. She steers her browser to a website (greatergood.com) where, with a click of the mouse, she can donate a few cents to ameliorate world hunger, fund autism treatment and research, and support the work...
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Wake-up call: Confronting the abuse of power head-on
The future has never been clearer. If societies continue on the current path set by major political leaders, financial powers, multinational interests and military forces, we can forecast with full confidence that tomorrow will bring more sorrow than joy, more hardship than prosperity, more war than peace, more physical and mental illness than strong bodies...
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March to economic madness
Back in June 2013, when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke proposed to taper — and possibly end — the Fed’s unprecedented $85 billion a month purchases of mortgage-backed securities and Treasuries, stock markets tumbled and bond yields rose. The Dow Jones Industrials and the Standard & Poor’s 500 each fell 1.4 percent. The Nasdaq composite...
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Grim trend lines with glimmers of opportunity
This is my 34th year of forecasting trends. For the past dozen or so, when analyzing the trends that would shape much of the year ahead, I would say, “How sad, the future looks less promising than the past.” Unfortunately, I’ve been right. Each year ends worse than the year before. And I’m not alone. Along with indisputable...