Here's your assignment: You've just been elected President of the United States. Your most urgent Cabinet appointment is Treasury Secretary, the person who will lead us out of the worst financial abyss since the Depression.

Obviously, this person must have not only the leadership skills and charisma to inspire and...

Elizabeth Alexander delivered an original poem, "Praise Song for the Day", at the inauguration ceremony. Hearing it, and later reading it, the poem reminded me of why so few of us pay much attention to contemporary poetry. I felt very little emotional impact or intellectual stimulation. It was a...

Is there anyone who has not yet weighed in on "the speech"? Unquestionably, it had substance, including a litany of the domestic and international challenges that we face. But did it soar, did it meet the high expectations that we all had for what many thought might become "the speech...

In 1983, screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy, Marathon Man, All the President's Men, Princess Bride, et al.) wrote Adventures in the Screen Trade, a brilliant and entertaining analysis of the movie industry. His unforgettable takeaway line that summarized the entire 436-page book, the phrase that captured the essence of Hollywood,...

When we accompanied the New York Philharmonic on its historic trip to North Korea for its February 26 concert, the question that we were asked most often was, "Why?" Why was an American classical music organization invited to perform in the capital of a country with whom we've technically been...

Opening night at the Met, 2007-08 season

Okay class, pay attention. Here's today's business problem:

It's 2006. You're hired to run the largest performing arts organization in the world, a 125-year-old household name. Every year, you stage over 200 performances per year...

Day One of Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee, and we were fortunate enough to have had dinner with him last evening. Fresh from his victory speech in St. Paul and a day in Washington, D.C., at the Senate and at AIPAC, the Senator arrived at the fund-raiser in a...

In the old days, the conventional wisdom on Wall St. was that mergers were exciting, they created value, they just were good. And the bigger the merger, the better.

In recent years, however, mergers, particularly among large-cap companies, have not been looked upon so favorably. And the results mostly...

Let's see. You're 82 years old, you're the father of the geostationary communications satellite, and you've won medals and honors and prizes all over the world presented by presidents and kings and other ne'er-do-wells. What to do now? Retire? Take up golf? Smell the roses?

The answer, if you're

North Korea is a country with whom we've technically been at war since 1950. It's a country that lost close to a million people to famine in the late 1990s. A country that prohibits its populace from contact with the outside world. International TV, travel, cell phones and the Internet...

Here I am, sitting at my computer in our comfortable apartment in Manhattan, looking at the beautiful skyline and Central Park. Yet just a few days ago, unbelievably, we were in North Korea, a country that comedians might describe as Albania without the glitz. Except that North Korea is no...

We're here.

After months of anticipation, we landed 36 hours ago in Pyongyang, North Korea. The purpose? Ostensibly, to attend the New York Philharmonic concert at the invitation of the North Korean Ministry of Culture. But the real reason was to witness history.

As to the concert, it was a...

Start-up successes in information technology and biotechnology are the stuff of the entrepreneurial revolution of the last 50 years. We're all familiar with the stunning achievements that have been made in computers, software, biotech and related technologies. We know the companies that have rocketed from zero to billions in nothing...

In three weeks, Donna and I will take off from Beijing, along with the New York Philharmonic, 60 members of the world press, several more board members and a number of other interested parties in a chartered Asiana 747. Our destination -- Pyongyang, North Korea.

What started as an invitation...

The movie There Will be Blood has been hailed with near unanimous critical praise. The word among the cognoscenti is that it's a lock for Best Picture. Thus it was with high expectations that I recently attended a showing. Well, Oscar sure thing or not, the principal accolade it got...

(The following piece was inspired by a provocative essay written by the late Edward C. Banfield in the April 1982 issue of Harper's Magazine, "Art Versus Collectibles - Why Museums Should be Filled with Fakes." Banfield was a professor at Harvard, not of art, but of government. The art world...

Twice a day in every American city -- indeed, in cities worldwide -- for two- to three-hour periods, commuters drive into and out of central business districts. These periods, familiarly known as rush hour, are anything but rush.

Rather, the so-called rush hour can be characterized by:

• Traffic...

When one is born and raised in New Orleans, the fear of hurricanes is never far away. And though I left the city after high school, the fear was certainly rekindled after Katrina and after family members and friends lost so much. Now, some 28 months after this cataclysmic event,...

On Feb. 26, the New York Philharmonic will play Gershwin's An American in Paris and Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, From the New World - in North Korea! Or, rather, in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. And Donna and I will be there also, along with some fellow...

Obama - a Personal Take

They're in New Hampshire now. Fitting, from a personal viewpoint, because that's where the whole Barack Obama thing started for me. Not with the inspiring speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, but in New Hampshire, a year ago.

Donna and I were catching the news...