#5 particularly caught my eye, probably just because I am working on an "Electronic Safety Deposit Box" that shows promise of being a replacement to the "big data" Date Warehouse designs of "enterprise" class companies. 10 Resolutions Bankers Can't Ignore in 2012 |
2011 was year that many bankers, and especially bank marketers would love to forget. Not only was focus diverted by the need to respond to new regulations for the second consecutive year (this time it was the Durbin Amendment), but the image of our entire
industry was challenged as foreclosures and bank failures continued to be in the news. |
We didn't do ourselves any favors in 2011 either, as some of the larger banks learned the power of social media when they decided to increase (and then rescind) debit card fees, or when the industry fought internally with Bank Transfer Day. |
The biggest impact of all of this noise was that attention was diverted from what should have been accomplished in 2011. As I reviewed my post from last year, Ten
Bank Marketer Resolutions for 2011, it is clear that most bank marketers lacked the time/focus to make much progress on any of last year's goals. So, in writing this year's Bank Marketer Resolution post, I could have simply posted the same resolutions
from last year (similar to what I do with some of my personal resolutions). Instead, I reached out to bank industry leaders from across the globe for their ideas. There was surprising uniformity in their suggestions, and a sense of urgency around the need
to achieve much more than last year. |
So here are the resolutions bank marketers should not ignore in 2012 according to industry leaders: |
5. Leverage Big Data for Better Conversations: There is a lot of discussion in the marketplace about the use of 'big data' to transform customer communication and the customer experience. There are very few places where more customer insight is available
than in the financial services industry, where we not only have access to demographic and financial service ownership data, but also transactional insight that gives us a view into financial and purchase behaviors. But big data is nothing new, and should not
be overwhelming in an environment where the ability to process data has also grown exponentially. |
Unfortunately, as was found by Ron Shevlin from Aite Group earlier this year and in a soon to be published report, bank
marketers are still not very comfortable with communicating online or through mobile channels using available insights. This may require new talents and new teams according to Brett King, founder of Movenbank,
and author of the best-selling book and blog Bank 2.0. "In 2012, bank marketers should have a resolution to build a team that can create compelling customer journeys in real-time," states King. "Marketing is no longer about
'pushing' messages," continues King. Fred Hagerman, CMO of Firstmark Credit Union adds, "Bank marketers should have a resolution to combine web analytics and database
knowledge to drive even more relevant communication." |
I believe it is absolutely essential for mapping technologies to be "open source".
One very important reason for this is that Name + (residential) Address is widely accepted throughout the western word as Identity (which is why news stories frequently cite "...givenName surName of 123 streetname..." or "givenName surName of no fixed address"). This effectively makes your residential address half of a widely accepted Identity "key". Now, as we become more mobile, "residential" address is becoming less important than "current" addess (e.g. the current GPS co-ordinates of my omni-present mobile phone). Since most people still need a "map" to provide the contextual information related to latitude & longitude co-ordinates, its essential that they have unrestricted access to "maps". ‘Wikipedia of maps’ challenges Google |
December 27, 2011 by Editor |
OpenStreetMap — a nonprofit wiki of maps and location data to which anyone can contribute, just like Wikipedia — is suddenly a legitimate challenger to Google Maps, Technology Review Mims’s Bits reports. |
The prices that Google asked of its heaviest Maps users has led to a move away from Google and to OpenStreetMap, supported by deep-pocketed boosters, including MapQuest and Microsoft |
I'm looking forward to reviewing these and tracking them as 2012- progresses. December 27, 2011 by Editor |
Experts are making predictions for 2012 in a wide variety of technology, business, and economics areas. Here’s our pick of the most interesting. – Ed. |
Now I've suddenly developed a bad case of "monitor envy".  Robert Scoble |
May Santa bring you more monitors |
What is particularly significant about this legislation is that it restricts the flow of information within the US (a democracy?) without having any impact whatsoever in other jurisdictions.
Clearly, the entertainment industry (RIAA + ...) has had considerable input into this legislation and is once again protecting its own vested interests.
Fortunately, the significant "backlash" that is already apparent will likely result in modifications. Hopefully these modifications will be significant and appropriate. If not, in the long-term, Hollywood will inevitably be diminished as production shifts to other "open" jurisdictions, that offer consumers better value in the short-term. The Protect Ip Act (short for Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011, also known as United States Senate Bill S.968) is a bill introduced on May 12, 2011 by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT)[1] and 11 original co-sponsors (later: 35 cosponsors!) aimed at disrupting the business model of "rogue" websites, especially those registered outside the U.S., which are "dedicated to infringing activities."[2] After having been passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Bill was placed on hold by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR).[3] The legislation is a re-write of the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) which failed to pass in 2010.[4] A similar and more recent House version of the bill, officially called the "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) was proposed on October 26, 2011. |
SOPA is HR-3261. Sponsor is Lamar Smith. Cosponsors: Howard Berman (CA), Marsha Blackburn (TN), Mary Bono Mac (CA), Steve Chabot (OH), John Conyers (MI), Ted Deutch (FL), Elton Gallegly (CA), Bob Goodlatte (VA), Tim Griffin (AR), Dennis Ross (FL), Adam Schiff (CA), Lee Terry (NE). |
Both bills allow the Justice Department for the first time to obtain court orders demanding American ISP-s to stop rendering the DNS for a particular website — meaning the sites could still be accessible outside the United States. The House bill also allows the Justice Department to order search sites like Google to remove the allegedly infringing site from its search results... Furthermore, the newest proposal, (.pdf) introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), grants the U.S. attorney general sweeping powers to block the distribution of workarounds that let users navigate to sites that have been blacklisted or had their domain name seized, such as the Mafiaa Fire plugin on the Fire Fox browser. |
I really do like the graphic.
This really motivates me to tweak my news feeds in ways that filter out the inevitable "vested interests". The problem is that this can lead to "confirmation bias", in which you only read those views that reinforce what you already think and cull any dissenting opinions.
Since humans are emotional and will always have vested interests, I guess it will be necessary to try to craft a "fact" based inputs stream that can "evaluated" in a dispassionate (automated) manner.
Imagine being able to get "the facts (Mam), just the facts". Heck, next thing you know you'd have "trusted" inputs (version 1.0) and then, finally, a "trust-worthy" politician (Version 2.0). By Barry Ritholtz - December 24th, 2011, 12:08PM |
I am please to report that calling out the Big Lie has now gone fully mainstream. |
Recall last month, I had two Big Lie columns in the Washington Post: |
The first column was the most popular article on WashingtonPost.com for a full week. It generated nearly 1845 comments. |
Since then, both Bloomberg.com and Reuters each have picked up the Big Lie theme. (Columbia Journalism Review as well). In today’s NYT, Joe Nocera does too, once again calling out those who are pushing the false narrative for political or ideological reasons in a column simply called “The Big Lie“. |
Nocera details exactly how its done: |
“So this is how the Big Lie works.
You begin with a hypothesis that has a certain surface plausibility. You find an ally whose background suggests that he’s an “expert”; out of thin air, he devises “data.” You write articles in sympathetic publications, repeating the data endlessly; in time, some of these publications make your cause their own. Like-minded congressmen pick up your mantra and invite you to testify at hearings.
You’re chosen for an investigative panel related to your topic. When other panel members, after inspecting your evidence, reject your thesis, you claim that they did so for ideological reasons. This, too, is repeated by your allies. Soon, the echo chamber you created drowns out dissenting views; even presidential candidates begin repeating the Big Lie.
Thus has Peter Wallison, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and a former member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, almost single-handedly created the myth that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac caused the financial crisis. His partner in crime is another A.E.I. scholar, Edward Pinto, who a very long time ago was Fannie’s chief credit officer.”
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Longstanding readers of TBP may recall the genesis of my interest in this: When I was writing Bailout Nation, I did lots and lots of research into exactly what it was that led to the housing boom and bust, the stock market crash, and the Great Recession. |
The answer was “its complicated.” There were many many factors, lots of bad ideas, plenty of poor judgement all around. |
I summarized these into 7 broad categories. The incomparable Jess Bachman (of Wall Stats) created this fantastic graphic that is the centerfold of the book: |
The perpetrators of the big lie all have something to hide. Whether they voted for more deregulation or passed the ridiculous the CFMA or supported the repeal of Glass Steagall or cheered Alan Greenspan’s monetary policy, the Big Lie supporters all bear some resposibility. |
In the case of Peter Wallison, he was the Co-director of AEI’s financial market deregulation project. That was scrubbed from his AEI bio. |
Ed Pinto has taken a different approach to trying to deflect the blame from the blameworthy. He has continually thrown shit against the barn wall to see what will stick. Originally, it was the fault of the CRA. When that argument failed, he blamed Acorn. And now its the GSEs. Wallison and Pinto have had their greatest success with this — its now a talking point amongst many of the GOP contenders for the Republican niomination for President. |
With this post, we move Peter Wallison an Edward Edward Pinto into the UnGuru category, where they can join the likes of Ben Stein, Elaine Garzerelli and Meredith Whitney as “Ungurus.” All posts that prominently mention these people include the category Unguru. Read more at www.ritholtz.com |
A relatively concise and clear statement of the origins and the issues surrounding the options.
21 December 2011
Last updated at 19:00 ET
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What really caused the eurozone crisis? |
World leaders probably spent more time worrying about the eurozone crisis than anything else in 2011. |
And that was in the year that featured the Arab Spring, the Japanese tsunami and the death of Osama Bin Laden. What's more, 2012 looks set to be not much different. But as eurozone governments hammer out new rules to limit their borrowing, are they missing the point of the crisis? |
This week's Positives and Negatives strike a balance that makes it difficult for me to judge it one is more important than the other.
Since this has been happening quite a bit lately, I suspect I need to spend more time throughout 2012 trying to understand the relative impact of the numbers that strike me as being most significant. By Peter Boockvar - December 23rd, 2011, 3:00PM |
Succinct summation of week’s events: |
1) ECB lends 489b euros to 523 banks. Weak or healthy, what bank wouldn’t take 1% funding for 3 years?
2) German IFO business confidence unexpectedly rises a touch
3) Multi family construction in the US rises to the most since Sept ’08
4) NAHB index up at best since May ’10 at 21 (though still well below 50)
5) Months supply of new homes for sale falls to lowest since Mar ’06 as absolute # for sale falls to lowest since at least 1963
6) Initial Jobless Claims at 364k, 16k less than expected at lowest since Apr ’08
7) UoM confidence rises to best since June, led by the Outlook. One yr inflation expectations drop to lowest of yr at 3.1% likely due to lowest gasoline prices since Feb
8) Looking ahead, two 3 day weekends in a row for those of us working
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1) Italian 10 yr back to 7% as doubts remain with Monti budget
2) Italian consumer confidence at lowest since at least 1996
3) Shanghai index ends the week down for a 6th straight week
4) US Q3 GDP revised down to a punk 1.8% growth, follows 1.3% in Q2 and .4% in Q1
5) Existing Home Sales revised sharply lower back to ’07 but months supply falls to 7.0
6) Non defense cap goods ex aircraft unexpectedly declines, where is the kick start from the 100% 1st yr depreciation expense tax credit expiring next week?
7) MBA said even with mortgage rates falling to 4.08% on avg, a multi decade low, purchase apps fall to 5 week low
8) Nov Spending and Income light, savings rate falls to 3.5%, matching lowest since Dec ’07
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12.9 / 14.2 (estimate) = 0.9084507... (of the way there, assuming the current theories and estimates hold). NASA telescopes help find rare galaxy at dawn of time |
December 23, 2011 by Editor |
The galaxy, which was discovered and confirmed using ground-based telescopes, is 12.9 billion light-years away. Data from Spitzer and Hubble were used to measure the galaxy’s high star production rate, equivalent to about 100 suns per year. For reference, our Milky Way galaxy is about five times larger and 100 times more massive than GN-108036, but makes roughly 30 times fewer stars per year. |
GN-108036 lies near the very beginning of time itself, a mere 750 million years after our universe was created 13.7 billion years ago in an explosive “Big Bang.” Its light has taken 12.9 billion years to reach us, so we are seeing it as it existed in the very distant past. |
“The high rate of star formation found for GN-108036 implies that it was rapidly building up its mass some 750 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only about five percent of its present age,” said Bahram Mobasher, a team member from the University of California, Riverside. “This was therefore a likely ancestor of massive and evolved galaxies seen today.” |
This short excerpt is the introduction to a post that I found particularly interesting and well thought out. Saturday, November 05, 2011 |
In light of recent events such as the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street I thought it would be pertinent to review Hubbert's Third Prophecy about the cultural crisis he expected. He wrote about it in the attached article entitled "Exponential Growth as a Transient Phenomenon in Human History". In case you are not familiar with Hubbert's first two prophecies, he predicted both the US and world oil peak very accurately.
Read more at cluborlov.blogspot.com |
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