IBM Offshores to India and Business Still Shrinks

IBM CEO Ginny Rometty

Technology giant IBM reported its third quarter results on Oct. 17^th, and extended a stunningly long losing streak with its 22^nd consecutive quarter of declining sales.  In four years, quarterly revenue has dropped 18%. As they say on Twitter: Sad! 

The problems at the computer giant are due mostly to the transition in the corporate world from onsite facilities to cloud computing, in other words shifting their computing needs to centralized operators like Amazon Web Services. IBM is a laggard in that business.

Trump Administration Rattles the North American Cage on NAFTA

US Trade Rep Robert Lighthizer

Three rounds of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations came and went without much fanfare. But the fourth round, held in early October, included strong Trump administration proposals which start to fulfill promises to get tough on trade.  Mexico and Canada complained about the proposals. The NAFTA negotiations are now looming as the arena for a major international showdown.