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How to Name Your Baby
As most parents know instinctively, there is a curious magic in names. Call your little on Elmer, and he will be less likely to succeed than if you plunge in with Charlemagne or Napoleon…Excerpted from John Train’s Most Remarkable Names, 1985.
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Would You Make a Good Company Director?
Russell Reynolds, probably the world’s best-known recruiter of directors of large corporations, looks for basic intelligence, common sense, good character, and collegiality. The director you want is enthusiastic, thoughtful and pleasant to have around.
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The Subprime Mess
The current catastrophe illustrates several traps and delusions that come up frequently, even though they are fairly obvious… Enough so, indeed, that I have pointed them out in my books.
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Greek Gods and Hormones
The ancient Greeks associated emotions with deities. Today we explain the same emotions by the effect of hormonal and other systems that have developed over millions of years to help us adapt to our environment.
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What About the Stock Market?
Pre-election years are usually good for the stock market. The defending president pumps oxygen into the system to produce a rosy glow as the voters go to the polls. That’s politics though, not economics.
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An Essential Move in Afghanistan
The Afghan economy is at a dangerous crossroads. A strong market economy could very well survive without democracy in Afghanistan, but the fledgling democracy in Kabul stands little chance without a vigorous economy.
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Glimpses of Vietnam
Going for a stroll in Saigon at either end of a business day is like walking along the bank of a furiously rushing torrent: a torrent of motorcycles, tens of thousands of them, hurtling past. Since much of the city has no traffic lights, you wait and hope for a break in the flow, which…
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LUGZURY O LUGZURY
I’m all for elegance, particularly the elegantly simple, but the truly elegant isn’t self-conscious, and particularly not grossly and vulgarly self-conscious, like the “Luxury Collection” in some top hotels caught in the grip of a hyperactive PR man.
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Visiting Harvard
I graduated from Harvard College in 1950, and can probably say that if it weren’t for the buildings, an old grad of my vintage would not recognize the place today.
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When Large Matters Go Awry
When large matters go awry, they often follow standard patterns—groupthink, hubris-nemesis, the Ponzi scheme, speculative manias, the “distance lends enchantment” mirage, and other raptures—alone or in combination.
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Talks with China’s Leaders
China has her own interests, and unlike Americans, who like to bash ahead, the Chinese follow the maxim of their favorite strategist Sun Tze: “Be subtle, be subtle.”
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How Real Are The Deficits?
In the old days in the investment business when you were studying a company you would sometimes send a young fellow out back of the factory with a clicker to count the widgets emerging to be shipped. Easy enough to check production. Quite different now!