Introduction This paper looks at the recent performance of FHA mortgages and focuses on the reasons given by borrowers who have become seriously delinquent (D90+) for becoming so. The findings indicate a consistent pattern that is developing between trends in the above-mentioned reasons and in the overall job market. This pattern is concerning and deserving of further tracking. Brief Description …

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY One of the major challenges organizations face in their transformation journey and adoption of cloud technologies is migrating and moving away from legacy systems built on mainframes or IBM Informix databases. In addition to managing large volumes of data and complex data structures, these migrations involve 1000s of DataStage-based ETL jobs that handle critical functions such as data …

SUMMARY We conducted a study in Dec 2023 that revealed a trend showing US states with lower growth in house prices were more likely to also have experienced higher increases in unemployment rates. In past housing downturns, states that experienced deeper declines in house prices generally also experienced higher increases in unemployment. Therefore, any emerging signs of such a relationship …

SUMMARY Historically, whenever house prices in the US have risen at a rapid and excessive rate, they have subsequently tended to decline. Further, these house price declines have been accompanied by an economic recession, either at a regional or national level. At a state level, the historical data also shows that states with the biggest house price declines generally tend …

The White House executive order on responsible AI development and the OMB draft guidance on managing agency adoption establish requirements for the Federal use of Artificial Intelligence technology. As noted in the OMB draft guidance, in 2023, US federal agencies identified over 700 ways they use AI to advance their missions, and this number is only likely to grow as …

Introduction Navigating the intricate challenges of implementing a successful artificial intelligence (AI) strategy requires a comprehensive approach, where each interlocking strategic component plays a crucial role in overall success. Organizations need to coordinate all AI-relevant factors to ensure their AI strategy’s compatibility with long-term business objectives. This article presents the six most critical AI strategic factors, spanning data acquisition and …

Introduction Artificial Intelligence (AI) has garnered immense attention and investment in recent years, promising to revolutionize all aspects of business. However, indiscriminate application of AI to business problems, regardless of practicality, can introduce unnecessary solution complexity at higher than necessary costs. This article emphasizes that AI should be reserved only for select business cases when specific project factors are present. …

BACKGROUND There have been several articles about the role of a Chief Data Officer (CDO) of an enterprise. In this white paper, I discuss the role of a CDO in a business domain within the enterprise. By “business domain”, I am referring to a business area within an enterprise which could either be a line of business (LOB) having a …

BACKGROUND There have been various articles about enterprise data strategy. In this white paper, I discuss the data strategy for a business domain within the enterprise. By “business domain”, I refer to a business area within an enterprise which could either be a line of business (LOB) having a P&L or a shared service such as finance, HR, IT or …

In my article on Aug 5, I had said that we are likely to see a major decline in house prices leading to a large number of mortgage defaults. By now, house prices have started to drop with the Case-Shiller Index (CSI)  showing declines for three months now in various western metros. The national CSI and the purchase only FHFA …

Even though today’s jobs report has been much better than expected, overall the economy still shows signs of slipping into a recession and, further, the Fed remains on the path to increase interest rates very significantly. Consumption, the most important component of GDP, is starting to slow down with retail sales, adjusted for inflation, declining for a few months now. …

You Might Be Using Dark UX Patterns Users’ hire your website or app to do a job. Whether it’s to use a service, learn about a topic or to purchase something, the user has goals — and so do you. A well-designed experience makes it super simple and intuitive for the user to know where to look and what to click to …

What is Operations Research? Making decisions is easy, making good ones is hard. Arriving at the best decision with limited data and lots of uncertainty is even harder. Operations Research (OR) provides a framework for making better decisions when data is incomplete and uncertainty is high. Since we all face these challenges, all decision-makers should consider themselves as operations researchers, …

2020 could have been electronic health records’ moment. When COVID-19 hit the state of Washington and then New York City, a standardized and centralized database of aggregated patient data could have helped differentiate coronavirus symptoms from other conditions, hashed out high-risk patients and raised flags that a pandemic was imminent (and that this wasn’t just the seasonal flu). Integrated apps …

Productivity, optimization and efficiency were the name of the game for the past few decades.  Enterprises went all-in on business models, supply chains and IT infrastructures hyper-focused and lean as can be. Not a penny wasted, needless data stored nor a second lost. Redundancy became kind of a bad word. Then the world shut down. Businesses that had been solely …