So I’m having breakfast this morning with Haiyan Wang and Anil K. Gupta, the wife-and-husband team behind the Maryland-based China India Institute (not under any circumstances to be confused with the India China Institute). They’re giving me their–quite compelling–spiel about just how amazingly unprecedentedly transformative the rise …
Does Obama have an Asian problem? We’re still debating
Last week, I penned an article for Time.com titled, “Does Obama Have an Asian Problem?” The story predicted the senator from Illinois would handily win Hawaii’s primaries, which were to occur later that day. He did. But it also sought to explore why other states with large Asian populations saw their Asian votes go overwhelmingly to his …
Fannie and Freddie conquer a bit more of the real estate world
A mere three years ago, the nation’s two great government-created, privately owned, politically well-connected buyers of home mortgages, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were in disrepute. They’d both been buffeted by massive accounting scandals. Their CEOs had resigned in disgrace. Congress was talking about significantly reining in their …
Help—my boss is too nice
So I had an evaluation the other day. My supervising editor, Bill, came in and we had a nice chat. I outlined my goals and described the obstacles I foresaw. For his part, he told me how he thought I could overcome those obstacles, and informed me of qualities management values. Overall I thought it was a useful exercise that left me …
Google gets into the cable-laying business (which I don’t think is quite as lucrative as the search-advertising business)
One of the most fascinating economic stories of the past decade has been how the hapless investors who poured billions of dollars into Global Crossing, Worldcom and the like paved the way for the success of Indian outsourcers, Web 2.0 bandwidth hogs and all manner of other innovative enterprises. These telcos (over)built a global …
Elections? Equal opportunity. Workplace? Not so much.
When I consider the narrowed field of Democratic presidential candidates, I don’t think that much about them in terms of race or gender. That, to me, is a huge development. Sure, those factors will loom in our final choice. But it’s not everything. And that shows how far we’ve come.
You’d think that if we’re considering a black man and …
The day classical music mattered
Classical music matters in my household. That’s because my husband, Chris, makes his living in that field, as a professional clarinet player.
Before I met Chris, I could not tell a French horn from a flugel horn, Mendelssohn from Mozart, Menuhin from Midori. Okay, I still can’t (but aren’t you impressed that I can spell them?). Like …
China’s economy continues to dominate in the polls, if not in reality
Another poll question on the economic power of nations, this time from Gallup (via Greg Mankiw):
“Which one of the following do you think is the leading economic power in the world today?”
China: 40 percent
The United States: 33 percent
Japan: 13 percent
The European Union: 7 percent
India: 2 percent
Russia: 2 percent
This is even …
When to disclose illness at work
Last week, my “mom” Marlene Kahan sent me a link to Lisa Belkin’s article in The New York Times: “I’m Ill, But Who Really Needs to Know?”
At first I thought it was an FYI forward; Marlene and I share many things, among them duels with our respective chronic illnesses that have deeply affected how we live and work. The article
…
The best jobs for 2008
There’s a lot of anxiety these days about job security. Maybe it’s the oncoming recession. Maybe it’s the presidential campaigns, which keep telling us we’re anxious about job security. Maybe it’s the job evaluation I’m having later today (for a workplace that shunned evaluations for years, suddenly we’re up to one a quarter). Whatever …
Back and significantly worse for the wear
So I’m back from skiing at (downhill) and near (cross country) Gore Mountain in the Adirondacks. The photo above is taken from somewhere around the top of the mountain. I’m pretty sure I took it right after making a couple of cell phone calls, because (a) I’m a total dork and (b) the tops of mountains are the only places in the …
My final post: Farewell, dear readers!
My colleague Andrea Sachs has a story in the Global Business section of this week’s magazine about Seth Godin’s latest book.
Godin is something of a character, a marketing guy who sells a ton of books largely by feeding people recycled common sense. I met him last year and asked him about that — why people perpetually want to be …
