In my final years of public service, I’d become somewhat adept at finding places in our county budget where administrators could hide money. I don’t blame them. Managers long for stability and politician’s hunger to create new programs for which they can take bows. Even so, when

Since Donald Trump was elected to the highest office in the land, the stock market has jumped to new highs.  The president attributes that rise to his win but there is another explanation.  As Liz Ann Sonders, a strategist of Charles Schwab, explains, companies are anticipating a ri

A reader commented on my blog of January 4, 2017.  The topic was about leadership.  In it, I referenced an article where researchers had concluded values, above intelligence or experiences, was the primary quality for a statesperson.  The woman recounted a discussion she’d had wi

When the housing bubble broke, taking with it the entire US economy, a number of people who thought they were middle class discovered they were poor.  Worse, they also discovered the safety net was so porous that many of them ended up with no job, no health insurance and a rapidly dw

More than once during my tenure as a politician, I voted to  deed public property to private parties for $1.00.  That is the minimum allowed by law to secure a financial transaction in my community.  Much of the time, what was awarded was a corner lot, too small to build on, which

Compared to the growing dangers to the virtual world, the wild west might look like a sanctuary for kittens.  Having my blog hacked by Russians, I know what I’m talking about.  A common threat are emails  that appear to come from friends.  I fell for one the other day and my scr

Around the world, people seem to be taking up the cry from the film, Network:  “ I’m mad as Hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”  Whether it’s Bernie’s Millennials or Trump’s unemployed, Tea Party members, or Black Lives Matter folks, people are rising their voi

Investing in art in the hope of making a profit is never and idea I’d recommend.  Most of us haven’t enough capital to buy works by artists with a large following, which means our purchases are unlikely to grow in value. Worse, tastes can change over time.  Finding the next Andy

Much ink has been spilled during this election discussing the state of democracy.  Cries for reform punctuate the media, and it’s heartening to know Russia has been  listening.  Recently, it sponsored a worldwide summit intended to “affirm the right of self-determination.” Am

I was thinking about the geological strata the other day and the way each level tells a different story about the earth’s development.  What interested me  was the thought these strata  never mix except at a time of cataclysmic upheaval. In a way, social classes are similar.  A