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One of the most famous lines in movie history is when Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate is told the secret to his future success, “plastics”, which was a hot growth area in 1967. In my career I’ve been fortunate enough to witness a few ‘next big things’ and be in a place and time when I could act on them. In 1971 I was asked to teach a course on data base management. At that time it was a very new subject with a worldwide installation base of no more than a few hundred sites, mostly IBM’s IMS. I thought it would become big and the topic of data base management systems ultimately led to the formation of Digital Consulting, Inc. ...

My current research interests include ‘big data’ and ‘predictive analytics’ You may have noticed articles or coverage of the topic as it’s made it into the popular media. Business Week, Time, the New York Times and others are covering what’s happening with big data. From time to time I’ll post updates here on what we’re doing and finding out about building a new software company to attack the problem of mining ‘big data’.

You may be aware that the Federal government is the one institution in America that doesn’t have to balance its budget. In a carefully choreographed dance between the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve System money is created out of thin air by the federal government and appears to be (so far, at least as long as the Chinese are willing to continue to buy US Treasury bonds) limitless. With low interest rates and no other places to put so many billions of $US, foreign governments like the Chinese will buy American treasury bonds, in effect lending us money at rates as low as 2%. But as the presidential election looms over our 2012 news, we are becoming more aware that ...

The title of this blog is a statement that has been debated in many leading American publications since the financial panic and market crash of 2008/2009. It’s also the title of a well written article by Matt Taibbi in March 3, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone  http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216?print=true . The subtitle of Taibbi’s article says it all: “Financial crooks brought down the world's economy — but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them.” Taibbi’s writing is representative of the way many feel and raises the unanswered question of how is it possible that events which caused so much pain and destruction for so many people have gone unpunished by the criminal justice system? Here is a little more ...