The Chinese stock market is red-hot and apparently on the verge of melting down. Yet, Chinese and foreign investors are hanging onto their shares. How did we get here? What’s ahead? What are the implications for the global economy and your portfolio? Keep listening to find out.

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Automakers are now poised at an inflection point of mammoth proportions. As the Trends Editors explained in 2003, stagnant auto sales in the developed world are distracting us from the enormous and virtually untapped market for ultra-cheap vehicles in the developing world. As we forecasted, powerful trends in materials science, manufacturing methods, engine designs, and business models are converging to pave the way for the sales of a billion or more vehicles in the next two decades. Only a small fraction of those sales will be to today’s auto owners. What will this mean for the existing auto companies? What will it mean for the quality of life in the developing world? Who will be the beneficiaries, and who will be the victims? We’ll map out the road ahead and show you the way.

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Many of the trends highlighted in this issue depend on low-cost, ubiquitous bandwidth.  To enable these trends, and dozens of others, a new generation of wireless broadband is about to emerge.  The Trends Editors assert that we're on the verge of the fastest worldwide rollout of a new technology ever seen.  So-called "mesh-wireless systems" will soon transform the way we understand and use electronic networks.  More importantly, they will provide the access that is currently possible only in major tech centers to virtually every person on earth.  What will this mean?  We’ll explain.

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What’s the best way to train employees and students who’d rather spend their days playing video games than working or sitting in a classroom? That’s right: Use simulation-type games to provide low-risk, on-the-job training. Furthermore, it works for elementary and high school students as well as professionals and executives. We’ll highlight the major implications for business and education. We’ll also explain how your company can win this game.

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Tracking online word-of-mouth and gossip in chat rooms as early signals of change has become the Holy Grail for both business development professionals and government security analysts. As blogs, message boards, social networks, and product feedback sites continue to grow rapidly, firms like BuzzMetrics are introducing sophisticated research services to help marketers understand and act on the consumer buzz impacting their brands. What are the opportunities and threats associated with this new marketing technology? We’ll fill you in on the “buzz.”

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Telematics already resides in most of our cars as a value-added service that some of us love and others totally ignore. Over the longer term, computerized self-driving cars that relate to other vehicles and the roadway will slowly emerge, as today’s parking assistants and cruise control morph into “virtual drivers.” On the road from today’s reality to tomorrow’s cyber-chauffeured dream, we’ll encounter broadband Internet-equipped automobiles. These will become commercially available when the 2008 models reach the showrooms. What are the implications? Where is this going? What’s in it for you and your business? We’ll give you the answers that will put you in the express lane to the future.

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As the Trends editors explained in the period leading up to the “tech wreck,” a certain class of business models is uniquely positioned to leverage the so-called “Metcalfe effect.” We also explained that even those models were doomed to fail if they were launched prematurely. As we predicted, few survived. Now, nearly 10 years later, attitudes, technologies, and demographics all favor this type of start-up. As a result, in the past year, we’ve witnessed an explosion of exciting new businesses incorporating a network-style model. Many of these will fail, too; but there will also be many fortunes made. What’s going on, and what do you need to know? We’ll get you plugged in and ready to make the most of this hot trend.

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