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

As of the month of October 2018, U.S markets have taken a massive hit going from “all time highs” to losing all gains in the entire year. While this is concerning to investors, most of Americans who do not own Stocks feel little to no change in their lives. In fact, most of the other economic indicators i.e. unemployment rate, wage growth, and job creation do not provide any sign of an economic recession or stagnation. While these indicators are important to understand the stability an economy, however one indicator which is normally not taken into account is consumer confidence.

Consumer confidence can be summarized as how confident people are in the economy based on how economically strained, they are. Majority of Americans, if they do not feel very economically strained tend to buy more goods/services. However, if times are very difficult similar to that of the 2008 recession, Americans tend to be more conservative with their money and spend less.

Following one of the worst trading days ever recorded on December 24^th, 2018; December 25^th however, showed a peculiar phenomenon. According to Amazon, “a record-breaking holiday season shopping spree” occurred where shoppers loaded their online shopping carts with a plethora of items ranging from top brand apparels to Amazon’s own devices. Amazons’ report also showed that in the U.S alone “more than 1 billion items were shipped for free using Prime”.

In addition, Amazon was not the only company which reported a massive increase in consumer spending for the holiday season. Other companies like Macy’s, Kohl’s, and Nike, also had very similar reports which showed a very drastic increase in sales on December 25th. Aside from retailers, Credit Card companies also saw an increase in sales during the holidays. Companies such as Mastercard and Visa reported an increase of “holiday sales of 5.1 % to more than $850 billion this year, the strongest growth in the last six years”.

This increase of holiday sales enigma demonstrated that even though there was a massive sale off in the markets, the population as a whole do not feel an economic strained. On the contrary, these reports not only show that the U.S economy is still very much healthy, but also bolsters the information the other economic indicators showed.

Source:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-26/amazon-s-record-holiday-shows-consumers-appetite-for-spending

The General Service Administration operates 24 Multiple Award Schedules with schedules being organized under industry or type of service. However, GSA has recently announced that it will change the current schedule and consolidate all 24 MAS to one schedule. This announcement will affect all contractors with this type of schedule contract. In addition, it will alter the process by which contractors apply for and government stakeholders buy from GSA schedules. Currently, GSA uses MAS for more than 10 million products that appear on GSA schedules. Reports indicate that an estimated $31 billion is spent each year through MAS contracts. The current system requires vendors to comply with different terms and conditions depending on the products or services they offer. This leads to a confusing and complicated system that frustrates the vendors. The new system that GSA is proposing would streamline the current process and allow vendors to consolidate their purchases to one schedule. GSA has not yet issued a timeline for the consolidation but they say that the consolidation should be anticipated to occur within two years. A GSA representative in a press call explained that the process will be down in two phases. The first phase will be completed in the fiscal year 2019 and existing contractors will continue to sell through their existing contracts while new contracts will be established on the new schedule. In the second phase, GSA will move existing contractors on the new consolidated schedule. This is not a new concept since the idea has been in the works as mentioned in June 2018 at Industry Day. At the moment GSA has not addressed what sort of impact consolidation would have on vendors with multiple contract schedules but what is clear is that this reform to GSA’s current system seeks to lessen GSA’s perception as excessively complicated. Whether this consolidation would be effective remains to be seen. More details would emerge during GSA’s Federal Marketplace Initiative Industry day on December 12 2018.