There was an interesting article today in the Financial Times entitled, "Sarkozy goes cold on Obama relationship" by Ben Hall. What is described as Obama's "reserve" and Sarkozy's being "intuitive, impulsive and direct," represents not only a contrast, but also how the two Presidents have been influenced by different backgrounds,...

When I landed in Texas for the holidays, I realized it had been a long time since I had been so happy to be home, seeing old friends and family. Something has changed here...for the better. Even if financially times are hard for many, that disturbing fear that was in...

The problem is that Tiger Woods, and many other sports and Hollywood stars, have become role models for millions of children around the world. The US exports images of them as uber wundergods, children sleep in rooms plastered with posters of their images on their walls, and yet, as we...

With the financial crisis came a stripping away of the layers of superficial "success" and the pyramids came tumbling down. Hopefully people will continue to find it absurd that "success" is defined by wealth, and focus more on substance and sustainability than all that glitters. But as long as there...

The first thing you do in a war is take out and control your enemy's communication system. Our news has been taken over by entertainment, propaganda and massive corporations. Huffington Post is one alternative to this. But we need to look at news overall, internationally, and how journalism will move...

I was thinking about how Mad Men, being focused on an ad agency, is able to place products left and right. It's like a return to good old American blue chip stocks, back when we still produced things, such as Ritz crackers (in Betty Draper's kitchen), Clearasil, airlines which were...

Now more than ever, with the stress and pressures of job loss due to the financial crisis, the concept of "Ethical Business Practices," especially in the areas of social business, microfinance and free trade, must indeed meet higher standards. And many of these great organizations such as the Grameen Bank,...

The opening credits of Mad Men are the most disturbing and haunting for me. It is 9/11 and the images of the businessmen falling from the twin towers. Yet they are falling past images of consumerism and ads which sell the "best" of America ... in silhouette.

My father was...

I was very happily surprised in New York last week to see an example of "art brut" or outsider art -- a piece by Henry Darger -- hanging alongside works by Beuys and other "mainstream" artists who are well appreciated by the "official" art market. In a period...

We need to stop listening to our mothers who tell us that if we want something from a man we have to be subtle enough to make them think they actually came up with the idea in the first place! We should take Norway as an example to follow and...

According to foodconsumer.org:

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has not only given immunity to the makers of Tamiflu and Relenza for injuries stemming from their use against swine flu, she has granted immunity to future swine flu vaccines and 'any associated adjuvants.' The last time...

After the birth of my daughter, the happiest days of my life were when microcredit pioneer, Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, and Barack Obama was elected President of the United States of America. Now, once again the sagesse of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in Oslo...

Last March, Dr. Drew Pinsky wrote about "Narcissism and the Economic Crisis?" for the Huffington Post.

And I think it is time to look even more deeply into this disturbing trend. There are simply more and more narcissists than there were a few decades ago. There is less community...

"A single ruler could, by fiat, decide which enemies were legitimate representatives of a state and which, by contrast, were mere 'bandits'..." - Daniel Heller-Roazen, The Enemy of All: Piracy and the Law of Nations

In June of 2001, I was in Gothenburg, Sweden, to witness both then...

The latest news from the Bruni-Sarkozy here in Paris household is that the French might start officially measuring more than just the GDP, but will begin accounting for, well, happiness.

So I began thinking about how happy I am living in France. Well, we earn a lot less salary-wise, but...

This tiny village near the Cap Lardier protected coastline in the South of France is the perfect place to spend the last week of summer. These past two months have been draining, more work and less sleep than I had imagined. It is only now, during this final week before...

I grew up in a place where many of the young men and women I went to high school with considered a future in the financial industry. Some went on to get MBAs, some are money managers, some bankers, some deal makers. I am very interested by Economics, and the...

Last summer now seems to have had an air of Great Gatsby-ish endings, and now a bittersweet cooler summer wind blows. The warmth still reaches us, by human means now, not accouterments, and we need one another now more than ever to keep warm. We are indeed all connected, and...

My daughter and I spent the solstice in the heart of Paris, first at the Swedish Cultural Center with its May pole, childrens' songs and dances, flower wreaths on their heads...and then moved from courtyard opera concerts to street corner jazz with masses of friends and Parisians as June 21...

A good friend of mine, Brigitte Marti, a French scholar living in the US, is married to a French doctor who works both at Johns Hopkins and in a French hospital, and has been organizing meetings with concerned citizens and the US Congress for some time to discuss the future...