My latest novel, “Seamless Sky,” published by JMS Books in January, will be serialized by the Westchester and Fairfield County Business Journals next week and in WAG magazine, their sister publication, in September.

A not so distant mirror of challenging times

July 30, 2020

Challenging times call for creative measures – and so it is that newspapers, purveyors of factual truth, have joined forces with fiction writers, purveyors of psychological truth, in the hope of expanding their readership and providing that readership with an escape from the grim news of the day.

On Sunday, July 12, The New York Times devoted its entire magazine to fiction. And the Boston Globe recently serialized Ben Mezrich’s “The Mechanic,” a novella, the Globe said, “with a strong Boston accent.”

I’m delighted that Dee DelBello — publisher of the Westchester and Fairfield County Business Journals and of WAG magazine, which I edit — has decided to serialize my latest novel, “Seamless Sky,” published in January by JMS Books, in the business journals next week and in WAG in September.

Trump’s ‘Uncertainty Principle’

April 7, 2018

Nature may abhor a vacuum, but Wall Street really abhors uncertainty. As an investor, you can make money in wartime, and you can make money in peacetime. What is really tricky is to make money when one day you’re going to war and the next you’re not.

At the moment, we’re in a trade war – except when we’re not. The idea fluctuates not merely from day to day but from Trump Administration individual to individual on the same day. ...

Donald Trump’s female trouble

March 14, 2018

The House Republicans are about to release their findings on Russkiegate and, shock of all shocks, they say there’s no collusion between President Donald J. Trumpet and Russkie Prez Vladimir “Vlad the Lad, Rootin’, Tootin’” Putin.

Given that intelligence committee chair Devin Nunes was basically a lap dog for Trumpet – running over to the White House and hiding in the bushes with fake charges about the Obama administration’s conspiracy against the Trumpet campaign – this was always a foregone conclusion.

Meanwhile, Robert Mueller’s investigation, which apparently has bigger fish to fry than obstruction of justice charges against Donnie Two Scoops, continues to go on its methodical way.

Regardless, I’ve never thought Russkiegate was going to bring The Donald down. Rather, it has always been about the two Ws – Wall Street and women. ...

Before the (Trump) parade passes by

February 8, 2018

The topsy-turvy financial and political events of the past two weeks have demonstrated the irrationality of our thinking at a time when clear thinking is what is most needed.

We rail against greedy Wall Street’s effect on Main Street as the DOW bounces around like a knuckleball without realizing that the two intersect. Yes, Main Street has traditionally supplied the workers for the companies traded on the Stock Exchanges – workers who’ve often been given the shaft by those companies, which are seeking greater profits and higher dividends for their shareholders. ...

To have – and have not:Wall Street in Trumpland

December 7, 2016

Among President-elect Donald J. Trump’s new best friends is Wall Street. Trump has chosen Goldman Sachsers Steven Mnuchin for secretary of Treasury and Wilbur Ross for Commerce. Remember when Trump was the flip side of Bernie Sanders’ “Wall Street bad” mantra. Uh-huh.

Now some libs are gleeful at what they see as Trumpet’s betrayal of the Rust Belters. But having shared the desperation of the jobless, I find schadenfreude to be a useless emotion.

Besides, are we really surprised? The rich gravitate to the rich the way the beautiful marry the handsome, PhDs congregate and healthy people avoid the sick. (Because they might be contagious, don’t you know.)

Anyhoo, I’m not among those who are too excised – that means you, Sen. Elizabeth Warren – about Wall Streeters in the cabinet. Presidents always appoint people from the Street, because, let’s face it, very few commanders in chiefknow anything about money. That’s why George Washington tapped Alexander Hamilton for first secretary of the Treasury. You need the guy – or gal – who knows, as Hamilton did, that “Power without revenue is a mere bauble.” ...

Hillary Clinton, the SATs and the triumph of narrative

February 16, 2016

At first glance a change in the direction of the SATs to a more reading-heavy format would seem to have little to do with the presidential candidacy of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But those of us who enjoy connecting the dots have seen a pattern emerge – one of narrative.

Control the story, and you control public opinion – it’s a theme of my debut novel “Water Music” and the forthcoming “The Penalty for Holding,” one of the games men – and women – play.

Even our visual, numbers-oriented culture seems to have gotten the message. The new SAT contains more sophisticated reading passages along with math problems that are more text-driven, which critics fear will disadvantage non-English speakers and those for whom verbal skills do not come easily. ...