This came last weekend in JohnMauldin’s weekly markets and investing report…
…the Williams Inference Center, which sifts through mountains of reports and data looking for disparate anomalies which taken together may tell us of some new trend. They have a good track record of drawing attention to trends before they become mainstream… shared some of their current thoughts, like a slowdown in US business around the world, due to unfavorable world opinion / reaction to Iraq; that individuals will overtake corporations as the drivers of change; that there will be a surge in demand for genetically modified grain crops, especially in India and China, etc., where the middle class is rising & restrictions are few; and growth in low-cost sensor technology (such as ‘radio-tags’). They also mention that Saudi Arabia (the major source of U.S. imported oil) — not Iraq — will present the most problems in the Mid-East: big debt … handful of aged, ruling families … shrinking middle class and declining per-capita income. Any problem there could easily & drastically impact U.S. oil interests.
Mauldin was attracted to this item, because the Williams folks went on to say that the rise in the use of the color pink was an indicator of increased denial in society, denial of economic and other problems, like the wave of pink in fashion was the psychological equivalent of rose-colored glasses.
That’s interesting, but I’m much more interested to see this emerging shift in power from corporations (and my guess is larger, more rigid, hierachical and/or bureaucratic organizations in general) to individuals as the drivers of change. I’m heartened to see this shift listed in the company of these other “harder” economic trends, as it’s totally in line with my own sense of things, my years of Open Space Technology practice, and with the most recent ideas I’ve been cooking about a GivingMarket.
Lately it feels more like these ideas have been cooking me, but slowly I’m starting to make some sense of them. I’m working to get my latest notes, understandings and possibilities posted in the Giving Conference. Perhaps the rising power of individual purchasers, organizers, and givers will burst onto the scene, stunning everyone in pink, with all the power and effect as would an economic shock.
Clearly there are some powerful people-to-people markets already. And while these may be run by some large organizations, nobody is really in charge or in control of the mass movements within them. More and more, it seems, we really do live as individual decision-makers in so many Open Space marketplaces.