Thanks for sharing that Clark. It is disturbing in some ways that an ex IBMer appears tobe running down mainframes. As Timothy Sipples mentioned, he based his theoryon an article in the Economist - a left-wing journal in the UK, and I'm afraid that I doubt if any of their journalists understand mainframes at all. But he wasright that bank branches are closing - in the UK, nearly 3,000 in the lastthree years, and about 60 branches a month are closing this year. We canunderstand the banks' reasoning - some branches had about two customers a day!Of course there are social implications, and as Bill Johnson mentioned, in theUS and in the UK a few new banks are opening. Here in the UK, Post Offices are now actually doing everyday banking for most people. Perhaps something the USPS should think about?
Timothy's final comment is very relevant and correct, Irving should have chosen his words more carefully. Keep the flag flying for the mainframe! A L Hughes -----Original Message----- From: Clark F. Morris <cfmt...@uniserve.com> To: IBM-MAIN <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> Sent: Tue, 2 Jul 2019 21:40 Subject: Disquieting comment in a Wall Street Journal article. An opinion piece by Irving Wladawsky-Berger, a contributor to the Wall Street Journal's CIO Journal has the following paragraph. "The shake-up of banking should be great for customers, according to the Economist. “The benefits of technological change are likely to be vast. Costs should tumble as branches are shut, creaking mainframe systems retired and bureaucracy culled.” Irving Wladawsky-Berger is a visiting lecturer at MIT which has the following brief biography. "After a 37-year career with IBM, Wladawsky-Berger retired from the company in May of 2007. At IBM, his primary focus was on innovation and technical strategy. He was responsible for identifying emerging technologies and marketplace developments critical to the future of the IT industry and for organizing appropriate activities in and outside IBM in order to capitalize on them. Wladawsky-Berger led a number of IBM’s companywide initiatives, including the Internet and e-business, supercomputing, Linux, and Grid computing. He continues to consult for IBM on major new market strategies like Cloud Computing and Smart Planet. In March of 2008, Wladawsky-Berger joined Citigroup as a strategic advisor, helping with innovation and technology initiatives across the company. He is helping to formulate Citigroup initiatives related to the future of global banking, including mobile banking, Internet-based financial services, and financial systems modeling and analysis." Given his background it is troubling for those of us who support the z series. The following URL is for the article. https://emailshare.cmail19.com/t/n/d-l-25bb70929cfa11e9a60d64415353e21b-l-d-r-l/ Clark Morris ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
