The last time the U.S. unemployment rate was close to 10 % was in 1983 in the heat of a recession. I started a new job in March 1983, was in my twenties, and personally have been in the situation we are now. When I counsel young people, three strategies...

When I was in my twenties starting out in business, I asked the septuagenarian man sitting next to me at a meeting held at his private club whether it accepted women as members. Without missing a beat, he said, "Of course we do. We have many widows here." I thought...

Clues about our priorities abound. Lately, I've been reflecting about my first visit to EPCOT at Disney World. Many of the countries exhibit their natural beauty. France highlights its food and music in the presentations. China shows "Land of Beauty, Land of Time" in a 360º Circle-Vision film featuring...

Three types of migration are necessary to keep our global economy strong. First, people move internally within a country in order to find jobs or to be part of a center of excellence. Second, people move from the suburbs to the cities during recessions. And, third, immigrants from around the...

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" as Amerian George Santayana wrote. One of the best ways to understand Obama's first 100 days is to read The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes. In the book, FDR spent money and kept changing his strategy which created...

Given the current times of turbulence in financial markets, some people might say worry about what you can control, focus on stability to keep your firm in existence and don't worry about the environment and the company's social responsibility. While some companies have made bad bets and must batten...

How many Americans and other G20 attendees know about the Shanghai 2010 World Expo? Americans don't even have a U.S. pavilion approved. This omission is a great problem for the U.S. and shows how potentially out of touch we appear to other G20 countries. So, here are some...

With the pre G-20 announcement from the White House, it is an excellent sign that President Obama will meet with Premier Hu and work jointly to solve the financial crisis. Our countries are interconnected more than ever. I am in Shanghai and learned just how bad the manufacturing situation is...

One of the great benefits of reading the local version of the Wall Street Journal when residing in Beijing is that you compare it easily to the Western version of the same paper. Today, "the China envoy reassures on dollar "headline on page 2 of the Asian edition would leave...

Just when you think that the US government stimulus is shaking the globe, you learn that 7000 miles away from D.C., a bigger stimulus will create a seismic shaking to our economy. Beijing government leaders approved a Chinese Stimulus of $586 billion. This is 5 to 7% of the...

If something makes money in China, everyone jumps in. I learned this from our dinner speaker last night, the famous James McGregor, author of One Billion Customers. Our speaker used the steel industry as an example. Steel was in high demand, with limited supply; the manufacturer could charge...

The 26-year old Chinese woman with whom I spoke volunteered how much it cost her and her husband to buy an apartment. She was quite pleased that they secured an apartment for 1 million RMB (about USD $147,000) by putting 30% down, A DOWNPAYMENT PROVIDED BY HER PARENTS. Clearly, this...

After landing in Beijing, I talked with a Gen Y (26 years old) named Wilma who mentioned she would be observing Earth Hour. In less than 12 hours, it will be Earth Hour. No matter where you are in the world, at 8:30pm on March 28th, you are supposed to...