Today felt like an incomplete Sunday, without Tim Russert, the giant political anchor of Meet the Press who passed away on Monday. As a story in the New York Times observed, politicians coveted the "victorious trial by fire" that would come if they survived Russert’s tough but fair questions. His tenacity was rare. He will [...]
I was initially persuaded by media and pundit assertions that what is behind this meteoric rise in raw materials is at least connected to "speculation" – ie, hedge funds plowing in billions into commodity future contracts and other financial investments that make the goods artificially rise in cost. But look at the Deutsche Bank chart [...]
Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah and His Majesty King Abdullah II bin al-Hussein are among the most impressive leaders I’ve ever met. Almost a decade before other dignitaries started realizing that the challenges we face are not between religions or between nations, but between philosophies of tolerance versus philosophies of extremism, Queen Rania and [...]
David Ricardo introduced the theory of "comparative advantage" – advising that each country has the ability to produce a good at lower cost, relative to other goods, compared to another country. Ricardo’s theory advises countries to specialize in the production of goods and services they can produce most efficiently – or with lowest relative costs. [...]
About two and a half years ago I was approached by Zvi Schreiber with a dream he had: to build a hi-tech joint venture between Israelis and Palestinians. I had started joint ventures in the food industry between Palestinians and Israelis and we had a mutual friend, Alvaro Aguirre, who had encouraged Zvi (who was [...]
According to my commodities futures trading genius friend Stanley Haar, this is a silly scapegoat because: True manipulation involves buying both futures contracts and hoarding the physical commodity, as attempted by the Hunt Brothers in the silver market years ago. I don’t believe this is happening now in the oil market or any other market. [...]
To handle the energy, the scarcity of natural resources from food to raw materials, the dangers of increasing waste and overflowing landfills, and to slow down the threats of climate change, a wide range of measures are being discussed, from tech and scientific progress to come up with cleaner renewable energies, to carbon-trading, resource-planning, energy [...]
Goldman Sachs reckons consumers are handing over $1.8 trillion a year to oil producers. -The Economist These states include Iran, Venezuela, Russia… No wonder "authoritarian-driven economies" have looked so good over the last few years. No wonder Iran and Venezuela can afford divisive hegemonic policies.
Did you see the latest ad from iTunes, promoting Coldplay’s new album?! How does Apple do it? Their ads are always so fresh, so ahead of the pack, so audio-visually on the cutting edge of art and pop.