Paying Dividends
The Chinese are coming. If you believe recent hype, we’re keeping them out–or, on the other hand, if we’re not, we should be. Scratch below the surface, the story is–thankfully–more complex. The Chinese are coming–setting up shop here in the United States–via one of three routes: acquisition of US assets, building new plants from the [...]
Master Craftsman
I have a very funny, charming dog, a five year old, white French Bulldog. He catalyzes lots of conversations everywhere I take him in New York. And, this being New York, on occasion those conversations take place with celebrities. My personal rule of thumb for these encounters is to roll with the moment, resist temptation [...]
Dynamic Times
This past Sunday morning in Doha, Qatar, Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva addressed the Al Jazeera Forum, a gathering of journalists, politicians, analysts, pundits and academics assembled annually for the last six years to discuss the dynamics of power and change in the Arab and Muslim worlds. The theme of this year’s [...]
Diplomatic Upstart
Independent Diplomat (ID) is an upstart in a world governed by tradition, long-standing, often opaque codes of conduct and large bi-lateral and multi-lateral bureaucracies–the world of international diplomacy. ID was founded in 2004 by former British Foreign Service officer Carne Ross (pronounced Cahrn) to respond to the needs of a new set of players entering [...]
High Yield
If you invested in high yield bonds in December 2008–when they were selling for 55 cents on the dollar–and you held onto them until now, you participated in one of the strongest performing segments of the market’s recovery over the last two years. That’s that steep upwards jag in the yellow line on the right [...]
Champion Trailblazers
I watch very little televison. To the extent that I do, I find I’m generally drawn to shows on Bravo, Sundance and PBS. I don’t think I’ve ever spent time watching anything on USA Network, home to shows I’d never even heard of–White Collar, Psych and Fairly Legal, for example–before recently learning about the network’s [...]
Clean Start
Last week, as I was writing about the Zayed Future Energy Prize, I came across an article about Martha Wyrsch. Martha is President of the Americas for Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas, this year’s winner of the Zayed prize. I made a note of her background and her career path–it followed the same pattern as [...]
Unorthodox Performances
Earlier this week I had the fortune of having a conversation with Paul Haas. Paul is the Founder and Artistic Director of musical ensemble Sympho. Sympho is grounded in a very specific vision for what classical music can be in the 21st Century: collaborative, engaging and mobile. Others innovating in the world of classical music [...]
