A month ago, I was sitting in a restaurant with Srdja Popovic, a democratic activist and leader of the revolution that toppled Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. We had met to discuss the revolutions ricocheting around the Middle East....

If you’re like most consumers of business and financial news, you gobble up those useless lists of “Best Leaders” and “Most Admired Companies,” trusting that people in my line of work have the right formula to measure what’s “best.” Over the years, I’ve been in the room when some b...

DALLAS   — In Dealey Plaza, with the white “X” painted on the spot where President Kennedy was assassinated, ask anyone about the grassy knoll and the second gunman.  Conspiracy theories come with the territory here. And at Barbec’s Restaurant on the other side of this sprawling ci...

WASHINGTON —Like a lot of us, Arsene Jasmin was glued to the news about Hurricane Irene. He recognized the hype, the clever TV meteorologists promoting their “wall-to-wall” coverage and “eyes on the eye” of the storm. He listened to government officials warn of destruction the way prophets...

NEW YORK — Sure, we push people into unions. But that’s OK. Unions are good for the worker. You gotta love ’em. That’s the Labor Day message Americans have received for three-quarters of a century from both organized labor and the National Labor Relations Board. These days the pushiness is s...

WASHINGTON -- Americans are a fickle lot. They create celebrities out of those they adore, and then hate them for acting like celebrities. Thus, we want our politicians to be one; we just don’t want them to act like one. And what does acting like a celebrity mean, anyway? If you’re Barack Obama,...

LOS ANGELES — To understand the cultural significance of Steve Jobs, you have to go back in time: to before the iPad or iPhone or iTunes, before Apple’s comeback products made candy-colored plastics and iAnything cool, before Jobs got kicked out of Apple, even before the Macintosh hurled a sledg...

WASHINGTON — Rick Perry’s rapid lead over previous Republican front-runner Mitt Romney was predictable. But it is not a good sign for Republicans hoping to reclaim the White House and further highlights the crucial battle within GOP circles: Who is the godliest of us all? That’s the mirror-mir...

WASHINGTON —Labor boss Richard Trumka is not one to nibble around the edges.  He declined a plate of bacon and eggs when sitting down to breakfast with a group of reporters last week because, the AFL-CIO president explained, he was concerned he might spit out a mouthful if he didn’t like a ...

Tell me again why Barack Obama has been such a bad president? I’m not talking here about him as a tactician and communicator. We can agree that he has played some bad poker with Congress. And let’s stipulate that at the moment he’s falling short in the intangibles of leadership. I’m thinking...