Having just published a two-part essay on the Black Swan as a philosophical framework for thinking about our disastrous financial reform efforts, I am uniquely qualified to write about the Oscar-nominated movie, Black Swan. Ironically enough, anything I publish on the web about the...

In Part One of this essay, we mapped the tactile, political surface of financial reform - focusing on the ideas and behaviors of individual political actors - notably Representatives Spencer Bachus and Barney Frank - in relation to passage and implementation of the Volcker Rule, a central provision...

This is a two-part essay about the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a 2,300-page piece of legislation now making its way through the federal rulemaking mill in 21 different federal agencies, via nearly 250 rulemaking initiatives and 70 special reports....

The crisis of journalism is a classic, slow-motion Black Swan imbroglio. Nearly every news organization saw the crisis coming, but hardly any proved to be capable of mounting an effective response. The story is already stale and yet it continues to remain intractable, organizationally and professionally, for most...

The New York Times writes today about the deceleration of the Wall Street Money Machine this summer, one that many did not see coming. Stock offerings, mergers, and other transactional activities that yield massive fees for investment banks and law firms have dipped below last year's plunge, providing...

Analysts have viewed the passage of Obamacare (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) on March 21 through the lens of partisan, racial, and regional conflict. Democrats voted for the bill. Republicans did not. Northern states voted for the bill. Southern states did not. Black and Hispanic representatives voted for...

Is Craigslist a pimp? You be the judge.

Having It Both Ways

The New York Times reported several days ago that Craigslist has tripled - to $36 million - revenue it receives annually from advertising for "adult" or "erotic" services. Advertising for...

"Whose motorcycle is this?"
"It's a chopper, baby."
"Whose chopper is this?"
"Zed's"
"Who's Zed?"
"Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead."

- Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction

In Part One of this essay, I argued that the market valuations of professional publishing companies such as...

"Whose motorcycle is this?"
"It's a chopper, baby."
"Whose chopper is this?"
"Zed's"
"Who's Zed?"
"Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead."

- Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction

This is a two-part essay on the future of online publishing in the US. In this essay, I argue that...

Businesses often talk about their "brands," which can be code for a manufactured, synthetic image. An alternative way for businesses to imagine and define themselves is in terms of identity and values, which typically have local roots. The most interesting and vital businesses understand and embrace the idea that where...

In this terrific New Yorker profile of wacky Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, we learn a lot about the history of Whole Foods, but even more about the strange and complex thread of ideas that Mackey has distilled through the years in his effort to reinvent the grocery...

The family finance website, FiLife is sponsoring a contest called "Fix U.S. Healthcare In Just Three Words." Never mind that FiLife uses seven words to let us know about it! To enter the contest, you can submit a phrase via your Twitter account such as "Impeach Barack Obama"...

The SEC received scathing criticism for its failure to follow the scent of massive fraud leading to Bernard Madoff. In the aftermath, Mary Schapiro announced on February 6 that the SEC would unleash the Commission's enforcement staff to more aggressively pursue instances of financial fraud.

Using the SEC...

I just finished reading Nixonland, by Rick Perlstein, and need to take a nap. Have you ever been lashed to a barnacle-encrusted pier and smashed by salty waves for days on end? You'd need a nap, too.

The reviewers have fallen over themselves to praise Nixonland, calling it the best...

Legal research -- once the province of desks, books, and binders -- is now online, data-driven, and real-time. These attributes pose new challenges to old practices and habits, and to old publishing stalwarts such as Westlaw and LexisNexis. Here are a few of the new research and business realities that...

Steve Jobs returned from exile on September 16, 1997. Since then, Apple Inc.'s stock price has risen nearly 2,500 percent. Revenues have jumped from $7.1 billion to $32.5 billion. In 1997, Apple lost $1 billion. In 2008, the company netted profits of nearly $5 billion. Today, Apple is the most...

British political philosopher Isaiah Berlin immortalized the distinction in politics and literature between the hedgehog and the fox. The hedgehog knows one thing, and is bold, direct, and uncompromising. The fox knows many things, and is crafty, subtle, and nuanced.

Joe Nocera and others have criticized President Obama...

Okay, so after months of inflamed hype, Wolfram Alpha launched a week or so ago and nearly everyone agrees it is terrible. The question is not how it could be so terrible; it is why everyone didn't know from the start that it would be terrible. Stephen Wolfram...

Excuse me for not joining the bandwagon, but the recent hair-on-fire frenzy about Twitter needs a bucket of cold water. Let's leave aside for the moment, Ashton Kutcher's inane race with CNN to be the first Twitter account with one million followers (trailed closely by Britney Spears). Let's ignore for...

I haven't posted in more than five weeks, having submitted myself to an alternative form of torture - the "wayward son college application ordeal".

I applied to colleges in the 1970s. And wow. I am not in Kansas any longer.

Talk about a meat grinder, a cellulose processor, a proctology...