Why Obama will win...

Obama is more media-friendly, specifically internet-savvy. He owns the youth vote (I've read up to 92% of young voters in urban centers), and one could argue he's younger and resonates with the youth better than McCain. I would drill down deeper and say he had better technical advisors, leveraging the internet to his benefit, while McCain ran a more traditional campaign. McCain is out of touch with America and especially the youth.

As a proponent of technology, I may be overstating its role in this election, but I could also make a very compelling argument that the US defeated the USSR in the cold war because of our smart investments in technology. Due to our capitalist system, we were able to launch smarter, more powerful weapons of destruction. How? The transistor, the precursor to today's high-intellectual content of semiconductors. Russia had a huge lead on us in Physics (they were first to launch humans into space, for instance), but our country fostered an environment conducive to innovation, as we allowed Moore's Law to produce smaller, faster, and most importantly, cheaper processing power. Hence, our bombs and missiles were more precise. We not only outspent the Russians, we were more precise in our investments. They had to inevitably declare "Uncle"--we tapped them out.

While they were playing around with glass tubes, Intel was busy producing CPU's cheap enough and powerful enough to house more processing power in one chip than in a whole Univac machine back in the day.

Much like the former Soviet Union, McCain never had a chance. The problem is whether we learn from our "win", because Russia and the rest of the eastern Europe certainly has learned from their "loss".

We need to keep developing the next great mousetraps, whether it's in nanotechnology, a cancer cure, genetic bio-indicators of disease, sustainable technology ("greening" our ecosystem), etc. We not only have to make things smaller, faster, and cheaper, but we also need to make them consume less power.

Who stands to benefit from this? Buy Intel. They've created a moat around their business, continually road-killing potential competitors. Their huge market capitalization makes them an unlikely 25% gainer per anum, but it's a play on America's future.

The market may tank more short- and mid-term, but when the dust is settled, Intel will be standing. No one else can power your laptop like Intel can. Of course, please consult your investment advisor, as any investment has risk. This is not a solicitation to purchase stock. This is just what I've done personally, as I hope to live another 40 years. As a non-real estate professional, certain areas seem pretty cheap long-term also. Not sure where the bottom is, but I would hope we're close to it. Although, hope is no strategy.

China

Even the most optimistic have conceded that the Chinese will be the next superpower within a decade. It's inevitable. But they will have huge growing pains as well (witness the recent precipitous decline in the Chinese equity market), much like America did when we became a superpower. Look at their human rights and how they deal with social injustice and civil unrest, as well as their deliberate flogging of environmental issues (although America has no right to point fingers, given our track record of polluting). I just don't want America to be the next UK--a financial center with little else. The UK experienced a huge brain drain to the US because of our manufacturing and economic might. There could be a mass exodus of smarts out of the US this time--actually there already is.

My opinion of Sarbanes Oxley is that it has driven entrepreneurial spirit under or overseas. Instead of developing next-generation technology, entrepreneurs have become bean counters and lawyers, dealing with compliance instead of focusing on their core competence. London is now underwriting more IPO's than New York. Legislators rant about the evils of the outsourcing of jobs overseas--yet they misguidedly enact laws which encourage it. We don't need more regulation--we need enforcement of existing laws on fraud.

I've been engaged with venture capitalists and serial entrepreneurs focusing on China, the next great frontier for not just making Nike shoes, but also highly intellectual property-intensive semiconductor technologies. I used to be a vendor selling enabling tools to these semiconductor companies (I now manage money), and I was lucky enough to participate in the tech boom in silicon valley in the late 90's. These people are replicating that business model in China. Some VC's ONLY invest in Chinese startups--serial entrepreneurs (Chinese natives) who had success in the States, and aim to replicate it in their return to China. They are creating another silicon valley in China--lots of them. The brain drain is already occurring.

For instance, those from San Diego are well aware of Qualcomm, the developer of the 3G wireless standard. They double dip because they make money on the semiconductor hardware as well as through royalties from their intellectual property (3G technology). Broadcom (socal) and Marvell (norcal) are also semiconductor icons which have had very successful IPO exits in the last decade. They are industry leaders in networking and storage, as they developed the silicon content enabling many technologies. The intellectual property in these leading edge technologies resides in the silicon, much like Intel's Pentium controls your computer.

Hence, the Chinese are getting tired of paying royalties on technologies and standards US companies developed. The domestic Chinese market is big enough to support development of their own standards--they're basically saying "screw the US--we can do it better and more pervasively--and we're tired of paying you royalties". And while there are challenges--this stuff ain't easy--they will get there.

And don't pooh pooh these efforts. Some of you recall the last big downturn in the economy, the housing markets, and the thing called the S & L crisis--during the early 90's. We had the riots, the closing of naval bases, debilitating earthquakes, the defense industry downturn, etc. as well. You could have bought a home on a 1/2 acre lot in Beverly Hills (north of Wilshire) for half a million, and a 12 unit apartment building in Long Beach for $350,000 via foreclosures.

Sounds awfully similar, doesn't it? Low-end homes have tanked first this time, and it's just a matter of time before higher-end markets take a dump, too.

But here's the silver lining: do you also remember when the internet was spawned (no, Al Gore did not invent the internet)? It happened many years ago, then known as DARPA, part of the Defense department communications network. Companies like Netscape and Yahoo rolled out the internet to the masses during these dark economic times, thereby enriching thousands of shareholders and employees. They went public in the teeth of that recession--I would argue they helped end the recession and catalyzed the start of the great tech boom.

I can assure you innovation in labs is still occurring today, what techies geeks affectionately coin "disruptive technology". These soothsayers can see around corners and will develop the next "new thing". My concern is that the next wave of value and wealth creation in the US will be dampened because much of this technological innovation is occurring overseas. The wealth generated by these startups won't be as widely distributed in the States. In other words, we need more Google's and fewer pets.com's. Long-term, I shouldn't be so cynical, because it is not a zero sum game. We should encourage innovation abroad as well as domestically. But my fear is that the US will not be playing at the adult table--and relegated to the kiddie table.

I've been a doom and gloomer for 2 years, and people thought I was heretical. Well, the manure did really hit the fan, and it turned out I understated the magnitude of this crisis. We'll climb out of it, and I have a feeling I'll be fine by staying close to the next wave of faster bandwidth, Moore's Law, and bio-entrepreneurship, but I'm afraid the deep end of the pool is going to be more treacherous this time. More people will lose their homes and jobs, and more realtors and loan officers will be waiters and waitresses. It's disheartening, but we are paying penance for our excesses.

Until our schools seed more engineers, scientists, and computer scientists, we will lose more high-intellectual, high-paying jobs overseas. It's got nothing to do with outsourcing--capital flows where it gets more bang for its buck. It's got everything to do with upgrading our skill sets, because the market will determine where the next good jobs will be.