The evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a transformative journey, from its humble beginnings in the 1950s to the current era of machine learning and deep learning. As AI continues to advance, it holds immense potential to revolutionize various industries, such as healthcare, finance, and transportation. However, this potential also raises concerns about the utopian and dystopian implications of AI on human society. On the one hand, AI can enhance productivity, improve decision-making, and drive innovation, leading to unprecedented prosperity and progress. On the other hand, the increasing reliance on AI raises questions about job displacement, bias, and surveillance, potentially exacerbating social inequalities and threatening human autonomy. As we navigate this complex landscape, it is crucial to consider the ethical and societal implications of AI development, ensuring that its benefits are equitably distributed and its risks mitigated, ultimately shaping a future where humans and AI collaborate harmoniously.
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Where do you get your news, especially local coverage? JIM CAMERON will review the latest online and print options and perhaps show you some new, credible resources for keeping up with local happenings.
India’s rise as a global power is marked by its growing economic, military, and strategic significance. With the world’s largest population and a burgeoning economy projected to be the third largest in the world by 2027, India is increasingly seen as a pivotal player on the global stage. Its strategic importance is underscored by its role in regional and international alliances, such as the Quad and BRICS, and its leadership among the Global South. Geopolitically, India is central to the Indo-Pacific region, where great power competition is intensifying. Its strategic partnerships, particularly with the United States, have strengthened, driven by shared concerns over China’s regional ambitions. The US-India relationship has deepened through defense cooperation and technology transfer, positioning India as a key partner in maintaining a “free and open Indo-Pacific”.
For US foreign policy, India’s rise offers both opportunities and challenges. The US views India as a potential counterbalance to China, aligning with its vision for regional stability and prosperity. However, India’s commitment to strategic autonomy and its longstanding ties with Russia present complexities in this partnership. Despite these challenges, India’s democratic framework and growing geopolitical influence make it an essential component of US foreign policy in Asia.
https://thediplomat.com/2024/02/why-india-became-indispensable-to-us-foreign-policy-and-pakistan-was-left-behind/
https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/india-must-manage-its-own-growing-global-systemic-importance-by-mohamed-a-el-erian-and-michael-spence-2024-03
https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/06/04/a-shock-election-result-in-india-humbles-narendra-modi
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/09/world/asia/india-changed-modi-swearing-in.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/06/07/world/asia/india-election-map.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/04/25/how-strong-is-indias-economy
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/economy/asia-pacific/india-economic-outlook.html
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/01/how-india-can-seize-its-moment-to-become-the-world-s-third-largest-economy/
https://hbr.org/2023/09/is-india-the-worlds-next-great-economic-power?utm_medium=paidsearch&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=domcontent_businessmgmt&utm_term=Non-Brand&tpcc=domcontent_businessmgmt&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD9b3uRB0VkvhYT9pD5B3rebUfvD9&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIv6vBmYu5iAMVTWhHAR2YqzomEAAYAiAAEgL5RvD_BwE
Vinnie Arguimbau will moderate a discussion with Board of Selectman member and Great Island Advisory Committee Chair Monica McNally about Great Island. The Master Plan development is underway. Learn about the process and provide your feedback.
Mike Wheeler and Bob Baker will moderate a discussion of Affordable Housing on March 7th at 2 pm at the DCA and on Zoom.
What is the status of Affordable Housing in Darien? What is the Darien Affordable Housing Plan of 2022? What is happening at the state level? What would a Fair Share requirement mean to Darien? Should Darien be funding its Affordable Housing Fund? Among the experts joining us are DMA and P&Z member George Reilly and Joe Warren of the Darien Housing Authority
Articles of Interest
The last Current Affairs unit of the year will explore the role that the Federal Reserve played coming out of the Pandemic. How did the Fed deal with its important mandate to preserve price stability? What could Jerome Powell have done differently? We will examine the three most significant policy tools available to a central bank in fighting inflation: interest rates; quantitative tightening; and coordination of monetary and fiscal strategies with Treasury. Since the viewpoints on these matters vary widely among the media and the public, discussions at this CA session are expected to be lively. Bert von Stuelpnagel will start with an introduction of the subject and moderate these discussions. He says that his two objectives for the session are (i) to better understand what happened, but also (ii) to allow participants to make an assessment of what interest rates might do going forward.
Bert wrote his master’s thesis at the State University in Munich on monetary policy in 1977. For the next 40 years he worked in the banking industry, always on the fixed income desk, ending his career as the head of dollar capital markets at BayernLB, New York. In the 1990s, he served on the board of the Financial Markets Association. In retirement, he has remained an avid Fed Watcher, always guessing what the Fed may be up to next, and appreciative of Chairman Greenspan’s one-liner that “if I made myself clear about future interest rates, you must have misunderstood”.
Recommended Readings:
Paul Krugman, Wonking Out – Are High Interest Rates the New Normal? New York Times, September 29, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/opinion/natural-interest-rate-higher.html
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, September 19-20 FOMC Meeting, Press Release
https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomcpresconf20230920.htm
MarketWatch, Ray Dalio thinks the U.S. is courting a debt crisis. Are regulators moving fast enough to avert it? October 12, 2023
Reuters: Fed’s QT mix may be capping, not spurring, long term yields, October 11, 2023
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/fed-qt-mix-may-be-capping-not-spurring-long-yields-2023-10-11/
Wall Street Journal: Where have all the Foreign Buyers Gone for US Treasury Debt, November 17, 2023
Forbes: Here is the Fed’s 2024 Meeting Schedule and Interest Rate Outlook, November 18, 2023
What are the effects of deregulation on commercial air travel? How are airlines trying to reinvent air travel as business travel declines? What will Artificial Intelligence mean to aviation? Are spare parts the airlines are using safe? What happens in the cockpit of a Navy jet when it is strafed by a Chinese jet? A pilot all of this career, Gunnar will tell us things we never knew about aviation.
Articles of interest
Your Pilot has a new job and a bigger plane to fly WSJ-Subscription required
Electric Planes, Once a Fantasy, Now Take to the Sky
Why Planes Were Grounded for the First Time Since 9/11
Spate of Runway Near Misses Casts Shadow Over Summer Travel
More Workers Are Getting Hurt on the Tarmac. ‘It Was Really Frightening.’
Airlines, Regulators Weigh More Cockpit Safety Alerts After Close Calls on Runways
Delta, Southwest Search for Jet Engines Parts Sold With Forges Safety Records
American Airlines’ Radical Plan to Reinvent Business Travel
Revenge Travel Fizzles for Budget Airlines
How we as a country manage immigration has become a critical economic, social, humanitarian, political, and security issue. Migration flows have never been more substantial throughout the world due to displacement due to climate change, economic conditions, and social violence. The United States is still a country that attracts millions of migrants seeking either asylum from personal dangers in their origin countries or for economic opportunity. In 2022, we issued 500,000 permanent immigrant visas; last year, an additional 2.8 million migrant border crossings resulted in apprehension or deportation.
Ric will outline the dimensions of the issue and identify recommendations across the political spectrum on how we might manage the inflow in a manner that meets several principles (economic, social, and security). Mike Wheeler will bring the conversation from the macro policy level to the human level by introducing a number of immigrants locally and what they have encountered in seeking to fulfill their dreams of a better life in the US.
Articles of Interest
WSJ : Rebound in Immigration Comes to Economy’s Aid
Rise in foreign-born labor force boosts worker supply, eases wage pressure and aids Federal Reserve’s goal of ‘soft landing’
Subscription Required
Axios: Immigrants are saving a worker-starved U.S. Economy
How to get a Green Card in the United States
Opinion | Michael Bloomberg: How Biden and Congress Should Fix the Immigration Crisis in Our Cities – The New York Times
There are a number of options to fix Social Security. Some of the most common proposals include: raising the payroll tax, lifting the cap on taxable wages, means-testing benefits, providing incentives to take the benefits later, privatizing social security, etc.. We anticipate a lively discussion on what are reasonable solutions. Whether or not they could pass Congress is anyone’s guess, but ideally, we need solutions that would have broad appeal and support.
Blackstone’s Tony James Wants Retirement Security for All
No, Social Security Isn’t Bankrupt. But It Is Struggling, Here’s Why.
How Social Security Funding Works
How to fix Social Security? It’spolitical but it can be done
The Right Way to Fix Social Security: Quickly
How Darien should develop its purchase of Great Island rests primarily on the Italian Palazzo mansion and the horse stable with arched ceilings taken from Grand Central Station. Two monumental assets require enormous expenses to refurbish and maintain, expenses that taxpayers will resist shouldering. Our town will have to consider the whole gamut of possibilities from commercial development, for example, the palazzo privately developed into a Relais Chateaux Hotel by a group holding a long-term lease, to a complete teardown of the buildings and cleared into parkland.
Background Material
Beka Sturges Presentation to DMA, October 11, 2023
Darien TV79 Playlist of video tours and committee meetings concerning Great Island.
Jan Selkowitz is a veteran China watcher. There is no more important foreign affairs issue facing this administration than our complex relationship with Xi Jinping and China. Are we friends or enemies? Can we cooperate on important technology issues like Artificial intelligence, or are we headed into a Cold War? What is the future of Taiwan? How aggressively should we be providing them with military resources? What are China’s challenges going forward? How is their Belt and Road initiative doing? Some Geopolitical commentators predict with their aging demographics, China’s days as a world power will be over in the next decade. Others strongly disagree.
You won’t want to miss this discussion on May 18th at 2 pm moderated by Jan Selkowitz.
Background Material
What Does Xi Want? YouTube Video May 11, 2023
Is China’s Power about to Peak The Economist May 11. 2023 Subscription Required
Just How Good can Chinas Get at AI The Economist May 11, 2023 Subscription Required
What’s China’s growing role on the world stage mean for the U.S. ? NPR April 30, 2023
America, China and a Crisis of Trust Tom Friedman New York Times April 14, 2023 Subscription required
A Country in Flux: Recent and Future policy shifts in China Brookings Institute March 10, 2023
U.S Taiwan Relations: Will China’s challenge lead to a crisis? Brookings Institute May 1, 2023
Peter Zeihan: Decoding China’s Destiny April 2023
Current Affairs: April 27 at 2 p.m. at the DCA and on Zoom. Voting Integrity.
Last year, Current Affairs had a lively discussion on voting rights.
The flip side is voting integrity. Having made a career in accounting for the world’s largest corporations, which requires great accuracy and verifiable data, DMA member and CPA John Wolcott will look first at how our elections’ votes are cast, collected, stored and counted. Disputes in this process have created recent mistrust.
John will then review some possible common sense solutions to ensure that future election counts are less subject to dispute by any party or faction.
You may ask how these might be implemented. Of course, that is part of the debate. Our conversation about John’s analysis and recommendations may lead to some solid findings in that area too.
Join us for a discussion of this timely issue. We should all try to be as well-informed as possible before the next election cycle!
Watch: Black Americans Debunk Liberal Talking Point that Voter ID is ‘Racist’: They’re Ignorant.
Best Practices and Standards for Election Audits
The Free Consent of the People: Thomas Hooker and the Fundamental Orders
“Here’s the (almost) perfect voting device. More to come”
