2010 wasn’t a great year for anybody associated with the business of moving goods, so 2011 ought to be better, right? Maybe. The economic disarray in the euro zone, the games China plays, the nuts on the world stage from North Korea to the Middle East continue to guarantee a weak recovery for anyone affected by trade -- or roughly 20 percent of the planet on a daily basis.
Here in the U.S., the economy will limp along as well, uncertainty being the name of the game in Washington as well, with the internal struggles on both sides of the political aisle undermining each party’s occasionally rational leadership. Expect no real progress on anything -- compromise only happens if people want to do it and have some common ground. Reminds me of President Reagan’s quip that his problem was that the right hand didn’t know what the far right hand was doing. That applies to the Democrats, too.
In our space, applied operational decision analytics (automating the human decision), there will be a lot of opportunities -- new food and product safety requirements, increasing security demands in the air and on the ground, tight state and local budgets scrutinizing eligibility and health care payouts -- with high demand but uncertain funding. It’s easy for Congress to say, “Do it,” but it’s going to be a lot harder for them to figure out how to find the funds. There are lots of great examples to come for political oversight and harassment.
Politically, I’ll be surprised if there are any winners in 2011. The budget and other critical decisions are too fraught with divisive ideological pitfalls to grant anyone much operational latitude. You can paint the stripe down the back, but it doesn’t change the stink.