Daniel Lubetzky

Here’s a story from The New York Times that I thought you’d find interesting. Gazans and Israel could have made peace before. Now, demographic and ecosystem issues add urgency.

By Thomas L. Friedman

Princess Diana once famously observed that there were three people in her marriage, “so it was a bit crowded.” The same is true of Israelis and Palestinians. The third person in their marriage is Mother Nature — and she’ll batter both of them if they do not come to their senses.

Let’s start with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist organization that rules the Gaza Strip. If there were an anti-Nobel Peace Prize — that is, the Nobel Prize for Cynicism and Reckless Disregard for One’s Own People in Pursuit of a Political Fantasy — it would surely be conferred on Hamas, which just facilitated the tragic and wasted deaths of roughly 60 Gazans by encouraging their march, some with arms, on the Israeli border fence in pursuit of a “return” to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel. [Read more →]

By Fareed Zakaria, Thursday, March 29, 2018

By way of explanation for some of President Trump’s bizarre foreign policy moves, we are often told that he is “unconventional” and that this could well be an asset. It’s certainly true that he doesn’t follow standard operating procedure on almost anything, from getting daily intelligence briefings to staffing the State Department. But his most striking departure from previous presidents has been in his rhetoric. American presidents have tended to weigh their words carefully, believing that they must preserve the credibility of the world’s leading power.

And then there is Trump, for whom words are weightless. During the campaign, he excoriated Saudi Arabia as a country that “want[s] women as slaves and to kill gays,” only to make his first presidential trip abroad to the kingdom and warmly embrace its rulers. He said NATO was obsolete and then affirmed the opposite. China was a currency manipulator that was “raping” the United States, until it wasn’t. [Read more →]

The New York Times’s Emily Rueb explores the retail pricing on KIND bars throughout the city.

Correction: The lowest price that KIND bars sell for is $1.25 on special deals.

A recent study proves that obesity is not just unhealthy, it’s expensive.  According to the study’s findings, obese people encounter medical costs that are on average $2,471 higher than those who aren’t obese.  That means that obesity as a disease eats away at $190.2 billion of funds a year, a cost that totals approximately 21% of national health expenditures.

Spotted by Daniel Lubetzky, by Adeena Schlussel

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This article illustrates that the MF Global scandal is outrageous primarily because of the firm’s leaders’ illegal actions and refusal to admit responsibility.  Moreover, there has been failure to aggressively investigate the responsible parties and if this crime goes unpunished, this incident will further undermine the financial system.

Spotted by Daniel Lubetzky, by Adeena Schlussel

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This is one of the most cogent pieces written about the behind the scenes machinations that took place at MF Global – and the motivations behind them.

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A recent stipulation in the ugly MF Global saga states that MFG Assurance should be able to pay defense costs that MF Global has incurred since its bankruptcy, even though MF Global customers are still missing $1.2 billion.  Consumer funds were treated improperly both in the way that they were illegally pulled, as well as in the way that they are being treated in the bankruptcy.  This stipulation just adds insult to injury.

Spotted by Daniel Lubetzky, by Adeena Schlussel

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My cousin shared this very cool presentation showing the evolution of our globe by geography and time – the life expectancy and wealth of 200 countries over the last 200 years. Fascinating.

And you can also play around with this platform across a plethora of indicators…

http://graphs.gapminder.org/communityproxy/ChartDataServlet?

The OneVoice Movement has been running for the past couple years a program called Imagine 2018, where they are asking Israelis and Palestinians to share their vision of what their lives and future would look like if the conflict were to be resolved and a two state solution achieved.

OneVoice will soon be unveiling its next phase in the project – very promising stuff.

In the meantime, I just got a video from my friends Art Winter and Doug Suisman about their vision. In cooperation with the RAND Foundation, they have worked for several years on a Palestinian infrastructure corridor that includes state-of-the-art planning to enable a Palestinian state to prosper and grow in peace with Israel.  Their work is nothing short of stunning.

Take a look at their teaser video below, and visit their site here: