In addition to my usual routine, Ralph and I and others have been giving some thought to a trip East. We are making plans to go to Washington D.C. and Ann Arbor sometime in late September. While in D.C. I will be seeing a number of SAIC employees and old friends who are still living in the area, and perhaps doing some interviews for the Network Solutions book, which is well underway.

The trip to Ann Arbor will be part business and part nostalgic. On the business side of things, the FED has begun a project with the University of Michigan Engineering School to help them develop a program on employee ownership for their students. This will be similar to the ongoing programs we have with UCSD, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Rutgers, and others.

On the nostalgic side, I would like to visit my hometown of Grosse Ile and locate some of my old friends and possibly see the house I grew up in. If you live in the Grosse Ile area and have time for a visit, please post on this blog and we’ll make arrangements.

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The U.S. economy has been on my mind lately. It does not seem to be recovering as well as it could. This is already having an effect on the elections and will likely have an even greater effect in November. I believe all this economic bad news is going to haunt the Democrats and ultimately cause Obama problems.

Some of my friends believe that we are in a natural economic downturn, and nothing Obama and Congress do is going to have much impact on it’s course. I don’t know if they are right or not. No one on Obama’s team seems to be alarmed, and Obama himself puts on a good face.

I think the Republicans are going to make some gains in this election cycle. They already have.

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I have included a photo from a recent trip on Solutions to the Jolly Roger in Oceanside. Joining us on this trip were Bill Proffer, Paul Kouris, Robert Craig, and Ron Arnold.