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Walter Isaacson's "The Innovators," covers the beginnings of the silicon chip with William Shockley in the fifties and the first transistor. Pat Haggerty at Texas Instruments has the marketing ability to get people interested in transistors for radios, just as Steve Jobs did for iPods, iPads and iPhones, products they did not know they wanted until they tried them. Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia, Gates of Microsoft, Jobs at Apple, Brin and Page at Google, and the internet developent, is covered as more recent material. No one person does it as each is standing on the shoulders of people before them. Social media does not get much attention. The messy work of venture capital and the errors and missteps of Apple and Microsoft are given less attention in Isaacson's exuberance and enthusiasm for the inventors. Patents play a part as the inventor Atanasoff did little to patent his creation of the first computer in the 1940's ,and instead was forgotten, as John Mauchly who based his invention on some of the same ideas took his place....

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Alan Mulally talks to Charlie Rose about cost competitiveness, negotiations with the UAW, creating jobs, and the repayment of $20 billion of the $23.5 billion borrowed in 2006. Mullaly points out that 70% of R&D is connected with design and manufacturing- all the technology that goes into designing and building and the associated R&D.

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Apple App Store sales are estimated at $15 billion for 2014, increasing by 50% from 2013. Apple says it has directly or indirectly created one million jobs in the U.S., with two thirds of this in software development by developers to run programs on iPhone, iPad and iPod. The App Store opened in 2008 after the introduction of the iPhone in 2007. Other jobs created by Apple are the 300,000 working at parts and materials suppliers, or construction workers at Apple facilities. Apple employs directly 66,000 workers in the U.S., with 30,000 of this in retail stores.

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Eri Machii, founded AfriMedico, a nonprofit organization designed to deliver medicine to remote regions in countries in Africa. She worked in Niger under a Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteers program after two years working as a pharmacist. There she learned about the dangers in Africa in remote villages where travel and delivery expenses were high and infrastructure lacking. She devised a method of Okigusuri for Africa where as in traditional Japan medicines were left in a kit in villages and people paid only for what they used. Payment is done by cell phone using the M-Pesa money transfer system. Maichii learned about okigusiri as a system used in Japan throughout its history in places where infrastructure was lacking, lack of universal health insurance, and large families living together. She found that this was true for distant villages in countries like Tanzania where she implemented the system under AfriMedico. 20 volunteers helped found the organization and Tanzania pharmacist network helped guide them in setting it up. Large amounts of medicine taken at one time reduce the cost of transport. Use of the system of medikits in urban areas helped subsidize the village use. This is a system that has great potential for medicine delivery in many parts of Africa and Asia that have the same problem of access to basic medicine kits- so that treatment can be done earlier in the process for quicker less costly recovery, improving general health conditions. One can think of Indonesia, Philippines, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, West and East African countries as having potential for wider use of this system. As people pay for only the medicines used using cell phones the system has wide applicability from cost and access point if supported by private and governmental agencies in these countries.   ...

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Ajami cites his own memories of Egypt's Gamal Abdul Nasser, who had a way with crowds and rhetoric in the Arab world, as giving him an insight into the way Barack Obama found his way into the American imagination as a popular leader in 2008. He points out that the coalition of black people who put their faith in him as one of their own, of white educated professionals who liked his cool image, of Hispanics who had hope for better immigration policies, and working class Americans who set aside reservations of elitism to give their support, was put together on the basis of hope and charisma and the uncanny ability of Obama to let himself be seen as all things to all people. Because of the way it was put together it was bound to come apart, particularly for a candidate without enough experience, says Ajami. The aloofness of the president, reliance on Congressional leaders Reid and Pelosi, and relying on a very small circle of advisors whose eyes were focussed on reelection, made this more so. He cites as one example, the controversial decision on Syria's chemical weapons made on a walk with chief of staff Dennis McDonough. Ajami gives a picture of how Obama may be seen from the outside, especially in the Arab and Muslim world- from Turkey and Egypt to Saudi Arabia- a sense of illusions. A European and particularly a German perspective also may have similiar sense of illusions about having gone for the ride and believing the image put out by image handlers. The lack of sensitivity to German sentiments about the tapping of chancellor Merkel's mobile phone- herself a former East German resident of the Soviet backed GDR- bringing this out. A similiar sense seems to have taken hold in Brazil, after Brazilian president Rousseff cancelled a trip because of lack of sensitivity to the tapping of her phone, as she is a survivor of brutal dictatorships in Brazil. This is ironically a full circle, as happens in these situations of euphoria encouraged by politicians inevitably followed by disillusionment, because Turkey, Germany and Brazil were some of the countries where enthusiasm for the new president was highest. More so because president Lula of Brazil, Merkel of Germany,and Erdogan of Turkey were leaders Obama seemed to relate to the most. This acts as a cautionary note for the future....

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On one of the major issues of 2014-2015 U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky provides conviction and vigorous defense of liberties. Senator Rand Paul made this the centerpiece of his campaign for the U.S. presidential election of 2016. On May 30, 2016, Rand Paul said: "Tomorrow, I will force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program. I believe we must fight terrorism, and I believe we must stand strong against our enemies. But we do not need to give up who we are to defeat them. In fact, we must not." With Republicans split on this issue, the strong defense of liberties taken by Rand Paul makes it certain that the Patriot Act will expire on May 31, 2015, and the NSA bulk surveillance of phone data will end. Both the American Civil Liberties Union and the conservative Tea Party Patriots have praised the extensive debate on the issue of the damage done by such surveillance tactics. Both the ACLU and the Tea Party see the need to let the 2001 Patriot Act and legislation supporting bulk data surveillance to expire....

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Deutsche Bank's image takes a hit in a criminal investigation of alleged tax fraud at Deutsche Bank involving cross border trading of carbon emissions certificates by traders. Co-CEO Jurgen Fitschen called the Governor of Hesse to protest a raid by 500 German police officers and investigators of the headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt. The officers arrested some executives and confiscated data. Fitschen and co-CEO Jain were in a supervisory role for the trading and not directly involved. Fitschen signed a tax declaration that is part of the case. Over 20 Deutsche Bank executives are under investigation in the case. Because Fitschen was also being examined in the case this is being viewed in Germany as placing himself ''above the law," by interfering in a criminal investigation. Christopher Frank, head of the German Association of Judges, a senior prosecutor in Freiburg, said in an interview: "Its disturbing that a bank executive believes he can influence the independence of the judiciary through a phone call...This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the principle of separation of powers."...

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A day by day account of Secretary Paulson and his handling of the Fannie and Freddie crisis. Secretary Paulson's style of doing things where he'd give marching orders and even before his staff had started he would be checking up on progress and his interest in all the details of actions taken and progress made in carrying out the steps agreed upon. His interest in keeping good relations with Barney Frank and his calling inhis staff and stamping his fist on a marble table so its reported, saying he did not want to be dragged into a " holy war" as the Bush administration wanted to rein in fannine and Freddie and Fannie and Freddie's heavy campaign giving had members of Congress going along with what these companies wanted. Showing ofcourse how for yewars Fannie and Freddie have distorted rational well reasoned policy because of ites built on campaign money with Congressmen. Secretary Paulson looking for Greenspan's home phone number which they finally found and his conversation with Greenspan....

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Research in Motion's new CEO, Thorsten Heins, says he has revamped the leadership team and his focus will now be on execution. He says that when he joined the company in 2007 it operated more like a startup. Heins wants to see founder Lazaridis in more of a visionary role. Product cycle times will be shortened as the teams will be more focussed from now on, says Heins. Heins sees one key part of RIM's strategy being getting new phones into the hands of users. Most Blackberry users have older model phones and Heins says only 10-15% of users know about the Blackberry 7 phones.

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A potato farmer in the Himalyan foothills is able to buy his first refrigerator using his Jio smartphone, even though he lives in a remote part of  India with no paved roads or indoor plumbing. Jio is the company founded by Reliance Industries head Mukesh Ambani, that is changing the way India shops and how it accesses the internet. Jio brings 4G technology to India and dramatically brings down data prices. To do this Reliance used its past success in executing big projects. It was designed to be a network that reached 18,000 cities and towns, and 200,000 villages, some lacking electricity, requiring 200,000 cell towers and 150,000 miles of high tech fiber optic cable. The project is now essentially completed, according to the company. This may be the biggest one it has tackled. Starting in polyester yarn and textile business, and in oil refineries, the company sought to diversify into digital platforms to compete with the likes of Google and Netflix. Ambani sees Jio not as a telecom business but as a digital platform and plans to use it to sell advertising, sell content, and financial services, also selling high speed broadband services. Ambani's project was designed to give India the opportunity to leapfrog into 4G and high speed internet and do this along with expanding the access through lower prices in the market to reach millions of people in remote regions of India including rural areas. Low cost access to data helps level the playing field between the rich and the poor. There are about 390 million internet users in India, penetration of 28%. This is now changing rapidly as prices drop - the potato farmer who bought his first fridge did this on his phone, connecting online with Jio which built a tower nearby that beamed nearly unlimited 4G data for about $2.10 a month. Jio has now signed up 215 million subscribers with its low cost service. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone are larger competitors but it is Jio that has revolutionized the market in India, and which now enables companies like Amazon to use the new 4G services to build its retail online business.   ...