The first-quarter gross domestic product growth number, at a blistering 5.8 percent, accentuated the U.S. economy’s similarity to a roller coaster ride. In any roller coaster ride there is a time, as the huge drop yawns before you, when you let out a scream of terror, barely mixed with excitement. For the U.S. economy roller […]

There is a general assumption among commentators — the majority of whom are urban — that cities are where the future is germinated, while rural areas represent the backward, ignorant and politically naïve. As communications improve, this may become the reverse of the truth.

The drumbeat of legal actions and investigations against the corporate icons of the late ’90s intensified today, with the news that the New York district attorney was investigating Hewlett-Packard over its activities during the Compaq merger — or non-merger, as time and the lawyers will tell. This raises the questions: were dress down Fridays symptomatic […]

Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department dismissed a proposal made by the International Monetary Fund’s Anne Krueger that countries should be able to be declared bankrupt. This bickering emphasized yet again the current helplessness of the West in the face of “failed states” and the economic disasters that they cause, and raised the question: is […]

Monday, April 1, the day when people traditionally make fools of themselves, I took a crack at looking at the macroeconomic shape of the world in 2025. Tuesday, perhaps even more rashly, I look at the microeconomic makeup of that world.

April 1 being the day when people traditionally make fools of themselves, I thought I’d take a crack at what the world might look like after the new century is a quarter gone, say December 31, 2025 — this being about as far ahead as one can meaningfully speculate. Given the overall theme of these […]