Stony Brook University Computer Science

Prof. Anthony Pennings from the Department of Technology and Society will be giving a talk on "US Dollar (USD) Centrality in the Substitution-Abstraction-Symbolic Computing-Telecom (SACT) “Stack” of Global Spreadsheet Capitalism".

Title: US Dollar (USD) Centrality in the Substitution-Abstraction-Symbolic Computing-Telecom (SACT) “Stack” of Global Spreadsheet Capitalism
Date & Time: Friday, October 24, 2 PM
Venue: B204

Abstract 
The status of the US dollar (USD) as an international reserve and transacting currency is a major topic of international debate. Some have pointed to the rising prices of Gold (XAU) and Bitcoin (BTC) as a signal that the dollar’s reign is over.
Others have pointed to China’s economic might and its BRICS alliances. But the USD is currently locked into a networked grid of financial terminals (BlackRock’s Alladin, Bloomberg’s “Box,” LSEG’s Workforce and China’s Wind). These platforms leverage network effects and real-time symbolic computing to reinforce USD centrality through formulas like NPV, VaR, and FX conversions. This talk examines the SACT “stack” that translates the world into the cells and formulas of “spreadsheet” finance and produces time-space power, globally.

Speaker Bio
Born in New York and on the faculty of New York University for most of his career, Dr. Pennings is happy to represent SUNY in Korea. Previously, he taught at Hannam University in Daejeon, Republic of Korea and in the Digital MBA program at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas. He began his teaching career at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand in 1993 and his research career at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii where he co-authored Computerization and Development in Southeast Asia (1987) and The FedWatcher Handbook (2015).