Wag the Dog Twenty-five years ago Barry Levinson directed a little movie. He had directed such greats as The Natural, Tin Men, Rain Man, Diner and Sleepers, so he is an accomplished director who knows how to tell a great story through some complex plots. In 1997 he made a movie with Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, Woody Harrelson, Anne Heche, Kristen Dunst and William H. Macy. It was about a scheme by a U.S. president…
A Loud Knock on the Door Things are closing in, at last, on our friend Donald Trump, and it’s about time. Trump has gotten away with “murder” for over thirty years. His impunity knows no bounds. But sooner or later even The Great Houdini tried one trick too many and found his burst appendix did him in on Halloween. I, like many, have been amazed at how much one arrogant and egocentric man could get…
The Supremes Today was a big day on the judicial circuit. Justice Stephen Breyer, a mild-mannered, intellectual and very well-respected liberal judge has been an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court for 28 years. Today he announced his retirement at the end of the current term of the court in June. He has not had the high-profile that someone like RBG had, but it is said that his behind-the-scenes supporting work was quite valuable to…
The New Bicoastal My head is back on Staten Island all of a sudden. I want to be careful in what I say because for the most part, we were very well treated on Staten Island and we tried to be good citizens who engaged with the community for the three years we lived there. I don’t think those were our favorite times for many reasons, some which are intertwined with the Borough and some…
The Savior of the Western World A few days ago I wrote about my startling realization about ESG as both a corporate policy and investment philosophy driver. That realization was that the corporate world is very quickly coming around to the view that ESG is no longer a “nice to do” and has turned convincingly into a “need to do”. And that tectonic shift in investment approach is forcing boards to take ESG and all…
The ESG Canary On this Delta flight to Atlanta we are in the new first class configuration. There are things to commend it and things not to like. On the plus side, everyone has their own cubicle with a big-screen TV. I cannot see anyone in total, just a small slice here and there, except for Kim, who is across from me in the center section. If she was not with me, there would be…
Ethical Dilemma As I prepare for my ethics course starting in a month, I am spending time thinking about the root issues of business ethics and how best to present and then teach that material to best effect. I’m fairly clear that the best method will be to force debates that engage the students and make them think through the issues I define for them. Obviously, I want to provide a framework and guidance on…
Caution: Boric Acid I have written many times in passing about the country of Chile. For such a small country, far from the United States, farther from Europe, and with a turbulent course of history during the span of our lifetime, it holds a disproportionately important role in my consciousness. I have thought long and hard about why Chile enjoys such a place in my sense of history and I have a number of thoughts…
The Sovereign State of AT&T When I was in college and studying Latin American political history, we were reviewing the recent political changes in Chile. While a small country, Chile was symbolic because it was very much an isolated country on the far side of the world. In the days before the Panama Canal, anything on the Pacific side of the Andes was a long way from home and if you went th Chile, unlike…
Doling it Out Yesterday was a national day of mourning and it was both unusual and yet very much an important and necessary event for the nation. I was nine years old in 1963 when John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas at the Texas Book Depositary Building as his motorcade drove past. While it was in the days when cell phones didn’t exist and not everyone carried around portable video recording capabilities…