Dear William,

Barack Obama's speech to Democratic Caucus on eve of the health care vote. Leadership based on a theme taken from Abraham Lincoln--"I am not bound to win, but I'm bound to be true. I'm not bound to succeed, but I'm bound to live up to what light I have." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiYUVdwoHu4

For the second installment of prefered Obama Administration personnel this from Paul Krugman. If only they had listened to his advise and the Norwegian example during the financial crisis I might consider them credible. The media blather surrounding the imminent rise of China as it pursues its self interest has only been eclipsed by our inability to provide an appropriate and positive policy response. Taking On China By Paul Krugman Tensions are rising over Chinese economic policy, and rightly so: China’s policy of keeping its currency, the renminbi, undervalued has become a significant drag on global economic recovery. Something must be done. To give you a sense of the problem: Widespread complaints that China was manipulating its currency — selling renminbi and buying foreign currencies, so as to keep the renminbi weak and China’s exports artificially competitive — began around 2003. At that point China was adding about $10 billion a month to its reserves, and in 2003 it ran an over...

And now a word from someone I wish was actually in the Obama Administration, Joe Stiglitz. Contrary to common knowledge the government is not stacked with socialist ideologues looking to take over the country. In fact, it has made a point to deny access to those practical few like Mr. Stiglitz whose policy proposals even closely relate to the Keynesian or demandside based mechanisms that previously alleviated the nation from the Great Depression providing the framework that served us so well until Reagan began the dismantling that has once again culminated in our current . Prior to the crisis Stiglitz, a Nobel prizing economist, wrote "The Three Trillion Dollar War" a real account of the true costs of war and an important reference for those now so concerned with our escalating national debt His most recent book "Freefall" identifies the flawed perspectives and incentives that lead to the 'Great Recession' and how failure to deal with them will prolong the d...

In a continual effort to highlight the individuals that enlighten my thinking I bring you George Soros. Soros needs no introduction for those even remotely concerned with finance and it is a shame that policy makers failed to appreciate the value of his warnings regarding market fundamentalism and general critique of financial market regulation. His life's story, writings, philanthropy and continual work and perspective at 80 are incredible and worth studying. Please do wiki his remarkable life and see for yourself. There is so much that he has written and lectured it is hard to know where to start. His philosophical and investment philosophy of reflexivity and open society will be increasingly valuable and his endowment of CEU with an entire department will no doubt continue its development. I will continue to follow everything happening at the Open Society Institute, www.soros.org, where you can find podcasts of his 5 part lecture highlighting the concept and meaning of ...

Jeremy Rifkin is the President of the Foundation for Economic Trends( www.foet.org ). "The foundation examines the economic, social, environmental, and cultural impacts of new technology introduced into the global economy." His most recent book The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciiousness in a World in Crisis draws conclusions from studies that suggest that we are not the naturally aggressive and self interested species we thought we were. But that there is a direct correlation between the historical rise of civilization and the development of human empathy. Just when I had begun to give up on empathy Jeremy Rifkin offers hope for its return. Agreeing with his premise and argument especially in light of events this summer in Iran and the response to the earthquake in Haiti. Cynicially, I fear it is a bit premature at least in America where we do not have the political will or progressive leadership to adjust to a changing world. It is possible in a cou...

With this I hope to bridge the two crises in my mind that have the opportunity to provide the engine for economic growth and conflict resolution, the fusion of energy technology and Industrial policy. Well, the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen has come and gone and ideas were communicated, consensus gathered, differences captured and important issues unresolved. Given the current state of the global economy it is no surprise that a major agreement did not result as governments are coming to grips with the reality of their best intentions and its realistic limitations. But also I would argue because they have not independently come to the self interested conclusion that would add to economic, environmental and national security. How do we use this crisis of climate and energy to provide incentives for conservation and economic growth? Variations on this question have been of concern since industrialization especially as they relate to growth and yet we neglect how it is manifest toda...

I am blessed to have friends that inform me in a profound way and hope to do the same in return. Trying to discover the truths, the good in society, in individuals that are inspiring and informed. A good story from David Foster Wallace. Kenyon Commencement Speech (If anybody feels like perspiring [cough], I’d advise you to go ahead, because I’m sure going to. In fact I’m gonna [mumbles while pulling up his gown and taking out a handkerchief from his pocket].) Greetings ["parents"?] and congratulations to Kenyon’s graduating class of 2005. There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?” This is a standard requirement of US commencement speeches, the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories. The story ["thing...