During these past few months, I have been reminded about the fragility of life, our society, and our economy. We have all been tested, tried and challenged in unprecedented ways. What I have seen at the heart of it all is a spirit that is simply astounding. I also see our community’s will, strength, determination, […]

When Germany let smaller stores reopen, the expected didn’t happen. Officials thought that shoppers would burst out of their five-week lockdown and spend, spend, spend. They were wrong. As the manager of an espresso machine store in Berlin told the Financial Times, “No one really wants to go shopping right now.” Same story in the […]

Dear Donald Trump: Man, I have to admit it. You really got me good. When you looked straight at Dr. Deborah Birx last week and started musing how people might be able to cure COVID-19 by exposure to ultraviolet light or injecting household disinfectants, I thought you were serious. I said to myself: “Wow, Donald […]

Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese Communist Party leader who created China’s economic revival, rooted his Four Modernizations in Premier Zhou Enlai’s 1975 statement that China must modernize. Deng called for comprehensive modernization in four sectors: agriculture, industry, science and technology, and defense. Deng consciously placed the People’s Liberation Army last in line, though its time would […]

Getting my parents and grandparents to talk about their experiences during the Great Depression and World War II was always difficult. They lived in the pre-Dr. Phil generation before people went public with their deepest thoughts. I have been thinking how they might have responded to the current panic caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. I […]

The coronavirus has rearranged American life. Mask wearing and social distancing is still required in the stores, gyms and restaurants now open, or set to be, across the nation. But what about the big, crowded cities? New Orleans, Chicago, San Francisco and, of course, New York have become the virus hotspots mainly because they put […]

Forgive Jacksonville, Florida, for it has sinned. The largest city in Florida partly reopened its beaches, and it became something of a national scandal. CNN ran a disapproving segment, and the hashtag #FloridaMorons trended on Twitter. As the CNN report put it: “The scene at Jacksonville Beach wasn’t one of caution in the middle of […]

After the 2008 Wall Street bailout, profiteers sucked up too much money. One of them was then-hedge fund manager Steven Mnuchin, now President Trump’s secretary of the Treasury Department. Mnuchin used a government backstop to bottom fish a failed savings and loan. Instead of helping beleaguered homeowners with mortgages at this firm, he foreclosed on thousands of […]

Like a carnival barker selling snake oil, President Trump repeatedly has touted the use of chloroquine, an antimalarial drug, and hydroxychloroquine, another antimalarial drug that also is used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, as a “game-changing” treatment for COVID-19. No scientific evidence exists to back up Trump’s claims; the data on which he bases […]