Update on 21 May 2024: Yes, Elizabeth, banking needs to be boring again!
A few weeks ago, I stumbled across an ad from PNC Bank, perhaps embedded in a Google search. It featured the President of PNC Bank...
top of page
Apr 176 min read
Stopping the Rich from Getting Richer
The essay in The Atlantic proposes global wealth cap, resonating with my 2016 message to the President of Brookings on wealth inequality.
Sep 7, 20233 min read
The Termessos Phenomenon
Termessos is a city in Turkey that held off an attack by Alexander the Great in 333 BC. This is a story about historical preservation.
Apr 10, 20237 min read
Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank
The problems facing the world today seem endless and intractable. Don’t expect any breakthroughs at the IMF/World Bank meetings this week.
Apr 9, 20232 min read
Yes, Elizabeth, banking needs to be boring again!
Last Oct, the Financial Times published my Letter to the Editor suggesting that banking needs to be boring again. Now Senator Warren agrees.
Mar 13, 20234 min read
Corporate Social Responsibility is a Rip-off
Here’s why “corporate social responsibility”, often simply CSR, is a reflection of a
broken political/economic system.
Feb 23, 20235 min read
Get Ready for Central Bank Digital Currencies
If you came across references to Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), did you wonder if it is like cryptocurrency? Good CBDCs are very diff
Feb 7, 20234 min read
Universal Basic Income is Not a Crazy Idea
Universal Basic Income sounds crazy but it has been tested and might be adopted in the USA before the end of this century.
Dec 3, 20225 min read
Urban Youth Unemployment: A Problem Getting BIGGER
Youth unemployment is rising in countries at all income levels. If the trend continues, it could become seriously socially destabilizing.
Sep 15, 20222 min read
Another election season
The crucial issue is whether the Democratic Party will retain its majority but there is a deeper issue.
Jan 1, 20224 min read
Youth and Sports in the Middle East (January 2022)
One of my Peace Corps group mates had the idea of building a sports complex in Palestine for Middle East youth. Here is our elevator pitch.
Jan 1, 20224 min read
Constitutional Amendment (January 2022)
A friend had the brilliant idea for an amendment that would stop campaign financing by corporations. Here is our elevator pitch.
Jan 27, 20212 min read
Youth Social Enterprise Forum in Community Development
Remarks for a youth forum in January 2021 via Zoom.
May 1, 20184 min read
Urban youth unemployment: A looming crisis?
This Brookings blog post sketched out my rationale for a new policy research project on the global challenge of urban youth unemployment.
May 15, 20173 min read
Innocents abroad? Trump’s first foreign trip
In this blog post, I recalled Teddy Roosevelt’s “speak softly and carry a big stick” and contrasted this to Trump’s emerging foreign policy.
Jan 10, 20174 min read
Trump’s Asia summit dilemma: Irritant or opportunity?
In this blog post, I recalled Teddy Roosevelt’s “speak softly and carry a big stick” and contrasted this to Trump’s emerging foreign policy.
Dec 16, 20163 min read
Trump’s cabinet, agency picks and the art of policymaking
In this Brookings blog post, I tried to explain the difference between private sector business deals and government policy decisions.
Nov 15, 20164 min read
R-E-S-P-E-C-T: The question of Trump and U.S. foreign policy
For the Brookings blog, I suggested that being respected is a better foreign policy objective for the USA than being loved or feared.
Nov 14, 201310 min read
Keynote Address 2013 Annual Model UN Conference
Possibly the most intriguing piece I've written in the past 50 years is the text of a Keynote Address I delivered at a Model UN Conference.
Apr 28, 20131 min read
Banking Has to Become Boring Again
In this Letter to the Editor of the Financial Times, I pushed back on an op-ed critical of Europe’s new financial transaction tax.
bottom of page