A R C H I V E

It appears the pandemic is over, inflation is under control, and the Fed is lowering interest rates in anticipation of a soft landing. Since all the past worrying has amounted to nothing, why worry about how to pay off our nearly $40 trillion national debt since the punchbowl has not been removed and the party is still going strong?

I remember an analyst's projection of Dow at 30,000 was laughed off as “an optimistic fantasy in our lifetime.” Today, the Dow Jones is comfortably north of 40,000. I also remember August 15, 1971, when President Richard Nixon decoupled the U.S. Dollar from its gold backing at $35/oz, and have watched the price of gold rise to nearly $2700/oz today. Given that the price of gold is a barometer of the dollar’s strength, is it crazy to think that next year, an ounce of it will be valued at $3500, which will be 100X higher than in 1971?

Finally, a decade ago, I learned on a visit with my daughter’s family that they had invested in Bitcoin at $20 each. Not understanding what it was, I strongly advised them to dump it. Today, Bitcoin trades north of $60,000. Who knew?!..

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One need not be a Stoic to know the difference between a realist and a pessimist. Since there is no question about our inevitable death, the only question is how we choose to live.

While the reptilian brain seeks safety and comfort, the neocortex craves challenge and growth. This is the battle Arjuna faces in the Bhagavad Gita, the epic Hindu poem that can serve as one’s roadmap to leading a meaningful life.

Having experienced a tough childhood as a skinny Jewish kid in a rough Muslim country, I was convinced life would get easier if I could just make it to America. Once here, I was certain life would get easier once I mastered the language, adapted to the culture, and finished my education. Having then found myself alone and broke, I trusted that life would get easier once I established a career, made money, fell in love, and found a life partner...

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The potential role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our lives is rapidly unfolding, and its pros and cons are the subjects of much-heated debate.

During the American Revolution, a farmer was fortunate to own a horse, which helped him plow his field and transport his crop to the market. With the advent of the steam engine, the same farmer could own the equivalent of twenty horsepower without the expense of feeding and caring for horses. This technological innovation was a “force multiplier.”

The invention of the telescope in 1608 in the Netherlands played an important role in advancing our understanding of Earth's place in the cosmos. Early telescopes were primarily used for surveying and military tactics. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), an Italian astronomer, physicist, and mathematician, turned telescopes toward the heavens, advocating a heliocentric universe that placed the sun at the center of the solar system, with the earth and other planets revolving around it...

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Simple ain’t easy. Even the partial achievement of Socrates’ simple advice to Know Thyself takes a lifetime of hard work. 

The Bible tells us that Moses wandered for forty years in the desert in search of the promised land. Given that the Sinai desert is the size of a postage stamp, it is hard to believe anyone could be lost within it for this long. Rather, we should read this story as the search for the promised land within as we endeavor to search for our true selves. 

For decades, some of the most well-read people I knew told me their favorite book was the Bhagavad Gita. My repeated attempts to read this book led to my ultimate failure to crack the code. How could a battle between two sides of one’s family lead to enlightenment? Then, one day, it clicked when someone handed me a translation by Gandhi...

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In 2005, we launched City Club in the dark basement of the historic Highland School to house an ideal community akin to Benjamin Franklin’s Junto, considered by many to be the birthplace of the American Revolution. 

More focused on developing our culture than membership growth, we initially sought and attracted older value-oriented members with the time and interest to participate in the club’s intellectual activities. This orientation then shifted as we secured a commercial kitchen and liquor license, increasing our capacity to serve food and alcohol. The subsequent full remodel and conversion of the rest of Highland attracted young members looking for a place to work, socialize, and eat delicious and healthy meals in good company.

I am pleased to report that our club is now ideally positioned to spiral to its next level of growth:..

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They say the best way to think is to write. I write these brief weekly columns not to be provocative but to refine my thinking process and to invite our members’ feedback so we can learn from each other. Here is what got my attention this week:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT. CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

YITZCHOK FRANKEL et al., Plaintiffs, v. REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA et al., Defendants.

ORDER RE: MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

“In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. UCLA does not dispute this. Instead, UCLA claims that it has no responsibility to protect the religious freedom of its Jewish students because the exclusion was engineered by third-party protesters. But under constitutional principles, UCLA may not allow services to some students when UCLA knows that other students are excluded on religious grounds, regardless of who engineered the exclusion.”...

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Regardless of what one thinks of Elon Musk personally, he is the richest man in the world and one of today’s most creative and influential people. So, let us discuss his recent comment that England may be on the verge of a civil war.

On July 29, the 17-year-old son of a Rwandan migrant family named Axel Rudakubana murdered three girls, ages 6, 7, and 9, at a Taylor Swift–themed dance class in Southport, a city near Liverpool, critically injuring many others. The murders triggered protests and riots by Britons who have had quite enough of immigration and Islam.

Although Axil is neither Muslim nor an immigrant, none of that mattered to the thugs who attacked the local mosque based on this false rumor. In towns across the UK, right-wing mobs gathered to harass immigrant centers, attack mosques, and burn police cars. These mobs, in turn, created counter-mobs of young Muslim men wielding hammers and knives, spoiling for a fight...

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In 1979 President Jimmy Carter determined that the Shah of Iran was a dictator and an obstacle to global peace while extolling the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini as an “Islamic Gandhi” and a potential agent of peace. Forty-five years later, we continue to pay an exorbitant price for Carter’s miscalculation.

Upon the Shah’s fall and the Ayatolla’s ascent to power, the newly founded Islamic Republic of Iran promptly took 52 Americans hostage. At the same time, it declared war on Israel (the little Satan) and America (the big Satan).

With Iran on the verge of acquiring a nuclear bomb and Israel’s recent assassination of three key Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, the Middle East is a dry tinder box ready to explode into the second front of a global war between Russia and America…

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As the greatest economic, military, and scientific power in the world, America may be immune from outside threats but remains vulnerable to internal failure, whether it be our current cultural civil war or the result of some longer-term protracted political stalemate. The traditional image of America as a melting pot of cultural, religious, and ethnic identities now looks more like a mixed salad.

The events of the past month, starting with the June 27th presidential debate, on to Trump’s attempted assassination, Biden’s better-late-than-never decision to drop out of the race, and Kamala Harris’ near-instant coronation as a new Democratic nominee are breathtaking events our country is still striving to process.  Meanwhile, the rest of the world is on the precipice of what could become a third world war.

The fact that neither party has embraced an open convention will certainly translate to a hollowed-out political middle, meaning that the country will lean too far to the right or the left. Fortunately, the Federal Government, with its nearly three million employees, will provide some needed ballast during this transition regardless of which party comes to power…

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While many people think of the above expression as a Chinese curse that implies uncertainty, crisis, and turmoil, its origin is English, ironically implying a blessing.

Let me start by stating how fortunate I feel to live in America, where the ultimate power lies with the people instead of politicians and elite leaders who presume to know better.

Less than a month ago, we faced an awful choice between two old, self-centered white men who put their agenda ahead of the country’s interest. People felt powerless and frustrated. Then, on June 27th, over fifty million Americans witnessed the spectacle of the debate between Trump and Biden, which confirmed their suspicion that President Biden was no longer fit for office and Trump was still the same egocentric liar attached to the tired old notion about the 2020 election having been stolen…

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We just spent nine days working around the clock to upgrade our small kitchen and bar. Commercial kitchens are the most complicated structures to build, right after nuclear reactors, labs, and hospitals. Since I have not had time to write a new intro, I’ll share an old one I have been thinking about all week...

Victor Frankel survived three years in multiple hellish concentration camps. Nelson Mandela endured 27 years of imprisonment, much of it in solitary confinement. Moses wandered the Sinai desert for forty years, looking for the Promised Land. 

Grit is passion and perseverance for long-term and meaningful goals. Without Grit, talent is nothing more than unmet potential. 

I often think about these and my other heroes: Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and how he dealt with the combination of war, famine, and the Antonine Plague; Lincoln and the Civil War he fought to free slaves and keep our country together; and Gandhi’s battle against the English to free his country…

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Last week’s Presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joseph Biden was frustrating, embarrassing, and sad. Pundits have tagged this three-alarm political fire as the battle of the Unhinged vs. Infirm, as the Ghastly vs. the Ghostly, as simple Elder Abuse, and ultimately a lose-lose proposition for America.

It is sad to see America’s 248-year arch of presidential power degrade from George Washington’s willingness to let go of power at the top to Joe Biden's desperately clinging to power at the bottom. During this debate, which City Club streamed in furtherance of its civic responsibility, most of the attendees representing the full political spectrum often sighed and could only peek between their fingers from the embarrassment of it all.

You know the jig is up when hardcore liberal pundits like Thomas Friedman, Maureen Dowd, and the Editorial Board of the New York Times all gently but firmly advise Biden to drop out of the race for the sake of our country’s future, striving to save us from the prospect of four more chaotic Trump years…

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