The United States recently became the last country to ground the Boeing 737 Max aircraft. This decision comes after days of mounting pressure by the public and the government to investigate and evaluate the processes behind the aircraft, and why the two most recent crashes have been eerily similar in their causation.

This incident alone has resulting in Boeing going on the defensive with the public and the media. Their stock has dropped 11% and they have lost nearly $29 billion in market value. Such an economic hit is indicative of a need for sweeping process change within the company, both in terms of plane assembly and testing before they are used by companies. The issue is, many plane orders and contracts are usually old, and often take years to complete. However, many airlines, including Norwegian Airlines, are demanding compensation from Boeing for revenues lost due to the sudden grounding of those planes. The issue is becoming increasingly costly for Boeing, but its own mistakes are farther reaching than that.

Boeing is also a government contractor for the Air force, being that they are a top competitor in the airline industry. They, for example are the only company capable of constructing the 737 Max, but when it comes to military tankers, the story gets a bit more complicated. Following the two aforementioned crashes, the USAF had its confidence in Boeing shaken as their KC-46 tanker (plane used to refuel other jets) was found to be malfunctioning, and inspectors were finding Foreign Object Debris (FOD).

The USAF described the issue as part of an assembly line culture that that left assembly tools to be left in the tanker, after the order was delayed almost two years. Such a simple problem left officials worried as it pointed to a problem with the very mechanical processes the company uses. They knew of development issues that hampered the company over the past two years and correcting these issues could cost Boeing an additional $3 billion.

Customers and clients of the company seems to be angry at their losses due to grounded flights, the government has become wary of the company’s processes and may discontinue working with them, and the public’s perception of flying a Boeing aircraft is tainted by this incident. These perceptions (that this debacle has created) may not go away anytime soon, and the losses companies are taking as a result may not ever be repaid.

Sources:

https://www.govexec.com/contracting/2019/03/boeing-has-severe-situation-after-parts-left-tankers-says-top-usaf-buyer/155547/?oref=channeltopstory

https://www.boston25news.com/news/boeing-takes-hit-to-its-reputation-after-2-plane-crashes/930655921

https://taskandpurpose.com/boeing-grounds-kc-46-tanker-jets

International women’s day is celebrated on March 8^th every year. The earliest Women’s Day observance, called “National Woman’s Day,” was held on February 28, 1909, in New York, organized by the Socialist Party of America at the suggestion of Theresa Malkiel. The 1910 International Socialist Woman’s Conference suggested a Women’s Day be held annually. After women gained suffrage in Soviet Russia in 1917, March 8 became a national holiday there. The day was then predominantly celebrated by the socialist movement and communist countries until it was adopted in 1975 by the United Nations. Nowadays, International Women’s Day is a public holiday. In some countries, it is a day of protest; in others, it is a day to celebrate womanhood.

Women have made strides in gaining equalizing rights throughout history, from the right to vote to the current push for equal pay for equal work. Notably, Representative Jeannette Rankin was the first woman to serve in federal office, sworn into the 65^th U.S. Congress in 1917. The 19^th Amendment, stating “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex,” was passed in Congress in 1919 and ratified in 1920; this amendment ensured female suffrage.

Fast forward to the year 2018, when 131 women were elected to serve in the U.S. Congress. The 116^th Congress is the most diverse in history, and women are represented now more than ever before. Current Speaker of the House, Representative Nancy Pelosi from California’s 12^th Congressional District, expressed, “It gives me pride to be the woman Speaker of the House of this Congress, which marks 100 years since women won the right to vote, and as we serve with more than 100 women.” With a total of 535 seats in the U.S. Congress (435 representatives and 100 senators), the number of 131 women in these seats is about 24%. From 1 seat to 131, our nation saw an immense increase in representation for women at the federal level.

Today, we celebrate the accolades of women throughout history along with the women who are making history in the present. This year, the theme for International Women’s Day is: “Think equal, build smart, innovate for change”. The focus of the theme is on innovative ways in which to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women, particularly in the areas of social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure.

Happy International Women’s Day!

Sources:

https://blog.untappd.com/post/183299448636/international-womens-day-2019

https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/14/us/politics/women-of-the-116th-congress.html

5G, the fifth generation of wireless networking technology, is the latest generation of cellular mobile communications. 5G will be able to surpass 4G LTE by targeting on high data rate, reducing latency, reducing cost, and increasing system capacity. As 4G can maximally reach its speed to 16.9 megabits per second (Mbps), 5G is able to deliver in Gigabit speeds (>1Gbps). Latency is the time interval between the stimulation and response. 5G targets on lowering latency from 9 milliseconds to 1 millisecond. The reduced latency will improve users experience to a large extent when they explore the virtual world. Moreover, since 5G has relatively low latency, it makes remote control of heavy machinery possible. 5G isn’t all about speed. It’s also about standard. Today’s networks rely on 200-foot towers to blanket large areas with signal. 5G will add more cell sites to cover more smaller areas, which enables multiple networks and devices to be connected at once. That’s the best part of 5G because it will not only connect people but also everything around. In the future, our cars will communicate with other vehicles about road conditions and helpful information on the road. If a car brakes up quickly in front of you, your car can detect that immediately and then brake as well.  5G will make billions of new connections possible within various industries such as autos, healthcare, manufacturing and distribution. The security of 5G might be a major concern of the public. A lot of emerging technologies are following the fast development of 5G to secure it. For example, Smart homes will require stronger methods of authentication, such as bio-metric identification. Other security installations such as firewall are necessary as well to protect our experience under the high-speed network.

When it comes to when can the 5G network officially meet the public, “it has been nearly a decade in the making, but 5G is finally becoming a reality. Carriers started rolling out fixed 5G to select cities in 2018, and mobile 5G will start making appearances in cities around the U.S. in 2019, with much more comprehensive roll-outs expected in 2020” (Fortune). The incoming 5G era will definitely be a big hype to the world.

Sources:

https://www.sdxcentral.com/5g/definitions/top-5g-security-challenges/

http://fortune.com/2018/10/08/what-is-5g/

In two months, Great Britain is scheduled to depart from the European Union, and no deal has been solidified to ensure a soft exit where trade deals can remain intact, and British businesses do not get harmed in the process. Some consider this exit better than remaining in the European Union at all, but businesses are acting more skeptical of the procedure.

On the surface, employment in Britain is higher than it has ever been, and so far, it has been hard to tell the outcome of Brexit. However, the way businesses are behaving suggests they may be more worried than initially presumed.  Banks such as Morgan Stanley are creating jobs in other European countries as a possible contingency, we still are unsure if these jobs come at the expense of British jobs. while this movement is smaller than initially predicted, the concept is still worrisome.

In terms of jobs on real terms, job growth has continued throughout the Brexit negotiation process, and it has been a boon to public sector jobs and the like. The British government has awarded £95 million in contracts and hired 20,000 new civil servants. Private sector jobs have also increased.

However, business investment has remained stagnant, and the uncertainty of the deal is only contributing to this stagnation. Businesses are holding onto existing workers and some have begun stockpiling resources in the event that a hard Brexit occurs in which tariffs could dramatically increase. In addition, companies such as Sony are moving their HQ to the Netherlands to avoid possible customs problems, and to avert future trade problems that could arise because of a poor trade deal.

A “no deal” Brexit could have huge implications for the country in an even more macroeconomic scale. This hard exit from a multinational trade agreement that could affect current trade deals with 70 different countries including South Korea, Mexico, and Canada to name a few. The key point here is that this kind of abrupt exit from the EU could affect trade deals with more than just EU member states, because some countries give the EU preferential treatment.

The impact of Brexit could ripple throughout the world in terms of trade. Increasing trade prices in Britain can cause businesses to relocate, and a poor relationship with the European Union can cause strenuous future politics between the two entities.

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47130189?

intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cv0kerlpjwvt/economic-effects-of-brexit&link_location=live-reporting-story

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47063405

The Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) was enacted in 1990, following an internal review of the Department of Defense, commissioned by President Reagan, after the review indicated a great deal of mismanagement in the Department of Defense. Thus, the purpose of the bill was to ensure that future employees of the DoD were well equipped with the knowledge and the management skills to tackle future problems effectively. The requirements and details within the certification requirements are tedious and time consuming, yet they provide an important purpose. The Department of Defense is constantly under the microscope of the public and the press, and therefore mismanagement can soon become a public relations nightmare. Therefore, the difficulty of obtaining this certification is imperative to prevent these kinds of situations.

The benefits of getting DAWIA certified essentially are the fact that people with the certification are able to work in new fields and do more work in higher acquisition positions within the DoD. An additional benefit for people is that by taking the courses required for the certification, it is also possible to receive college credit for those courses and the time spent working on them. Essentially, obtaining this certification opens the door to new opportunities in the career field, and provides people with further knowledge and skills needed in public management.

Sources:

https://www.dau.mil/faq/Pages/Certifications-Programs.aspx

https://www.dau.mil/training/career-development/logistics/blog/DAWIA-Certification-Requirements