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Drs. Eva Dubin, Jess Ting, Bruce Moskowitz and more. All elite medical doctors and all embedded in Jeffrey Epstein's network serving not only the monster's needs but also those of "the girls."  As The New York Times documents, as with his dealings with lawyers and university types, the ethics were questionable. Moreover, the networks were overlapping. Lawyer Kathy Ruemmler not only received pricey four-figure gifts from Epstein and career mentoring. She also was able to loop into quality healthcare, thanks to Uncle Jeffrey. BTW, that included his reminding her to schedule her annual mammogram. After this expose from the Times, one wonders if Ruemmler will be able to hang on at Goldman Sachs until June 30th, 2026.  Maybe it was naive: Some of us tended to think of medical doctors as toiling selflessly on behalf of humanity. As one medical doctor told me: If I were out for wealth I would have gone to Wall Street. Sure, he made enough for his family to be financially co...

  Yesterday I took a three-hour road trip to take in the last of winter at Geneva on the Lake in Ohio.  Shopped. Nice meal out for dog Bentley and myself.  Obviously, I was smug about my financial situation. That was yesterday. Today the Dow shifted down more than 700 points. As CNBC reports: "Stocks slipped on Friday after the  latest producer price index data  came in much hotter than expected, adding sticky inflation to a list of concerns that has caused market turbulence this month." What's reality is that no one knows what will happen next. There are the opinions. But they are just that - opinions.  At the Buddhist Temple of Toledo there was a talk Wednesday evening on how to remain present and calm, no matter what life throws at you. That followed formal training in meditation. Should Boomers take to the cushion? Success is a mental game. Failure comes from being done in by the “committee” in your head. Together, we liberate your thinking. Then we c...

Academia establishes and keeps reinforcing showcasing high intelligence. For example, you are encouraged to challenge with thoughtful questions. But even there, as I observed during my time in that system, it's not unusual to wind up being penalized for being, well, too smart for your own good. Recall the old adage: Would you rather be right or successful? Outside academia, this seems to be standard. That is, sidelining professionally the highly intelligent. Reddit introduces the subject: "Factoring out experience, wages, etc. Have you ever been rejected or you know someone who has because your/their intellect might be too good or perceived as problematic?" The more than 250 replies tend to 1) Agree this happens and 2) Explain why that might be a pattern. I second: This happens and frequently. I have experienced those smarter than I - even Mensa smart - get turned down for jobs and contract assignments. Overall, the reason seemed to be that they were obnoxious. Always run...

  Academics such as Leon Botstein, Noam Chomsky and David Gelernter usually don't acquire extreme wealth like Leon Black and Bill Gates. But, as The Wall Street Journal reports, Jeffrey Epstein nurtured them just as he did billionaires. That was to enhance his prestige aura. Not only did he use them for name-dropping. And he did plenty of that. He needed to extend his reach. That included landing an office in Harvard. And it was available to him after his conviction. It was located in the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics in Harvard Square. The same Epstein drill went on with many in branches of professional services, such as practicing law. Those primarily turn out millionaires, not billionaires or trillionaires. Name drop, Epstein did. And legal thought leaders such as Brad Karp at Paul, Weiss certainly did their part in generating stimulating dinner-party conversation.  So, scrutiny about what went very wrong that could create a global public menace like Epstein now include...

  Bill Gates does the mea culpa at the Foundation's town hall. Melinda was right to dump him. Larry Summers will never be associated with Harvard again. Remember when he was president of Harvard. Harvard will probably never be Harvard again. Nobel Prize winner Richard Axel resigned as co-director of Columbia University's Mind Brain Institute. That's just the latest reputational ruin and more from being a Friend of Jeffrey. So many other careers have collapsed. More will be in tatters. How will Bard College president Leon Botstein wind up in the WilmerHale investigation? Who knows, Woody Allen could also get roughed up. As if the Farrow family didn't cause him enough trouble. What to do? For the rest of their lives they might play out in their heads and over too many drinks with someone trusted how they became so embedded in the Epstein web. But there they are. It's documented in the emails, videos, photos and more.  There's no going back. There could be a way fo...

How many of us Boomer females wanted to be Kitten! Just like we had wanted to be Caroline Kennedy.  Kitten was that cute younger daughter on "Father Knows Best."  Played by Lauren Chapin she seemed to hold a special place in Jim Anderson's heart. And unlike our working class fathers who chowed down food at all hours in the kitchen because of shift work, Kitten's wore a suit as an insurance salesperson, was always home for dinner in a dining room and listened. Anderson even smiled when she said something cute. Most of our own fathers were too bone tired to notice we were there. At the time I didn't realize Kitten was my age. Starting at nine years old. Back then, with the darkness of Depression-era parents ever present (mostly fearing another economic collapse), we offspring tended to be born old. Never be young.   Well, Chapin has died, at the age of 80. My age. Like so many of us she did run into health problems. For her it was cancer. As the saying goes, life in...

Performance reviews. They now have a new wrinkle, at least in tech. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google, Meta and Microsoft are among the tech players embedding AI use in the performance review. There are all versions of assessment, ranging from achieving productivity gains to creating a new workflow tool the team can leverage. This, of course, adds not only to the angst associated with being formally evaluated. It significantly shifts what you should be paying attention to. That is, if you want to keep your job and perhaps aspire to a promotion. There is also all the decoding that overall must be done when you interpret what's in that review. For instance, when I coach those in professional services such as law they strain to decide if what's flagged as "needing" improvement" represents well-thought-out mentoring feedback or a legalized kind of warning that you could be on the way out.  In addition, there's the possible political aspect: Someone in p...

  Not so much the tariff thing. The 800+ plunge on the stock market primarily had been generated by a Substack post by Citrini Research. Running 7,000 words it sketched out a hypothetical in which the bullishness about AI is so on the money that it destroys the money. As AI quickly moves along in improvements it wipes out just about everything from the historic value of human intelligence to the commercial and personal value of human relationships.  Here's a snippet: "It should have been clear all along that a single GPU cluster in North Dakota generating the output previously attributed to 10,000 white-collar workers in midtown Manhattan is more economic pandemic than economic panacea. The velocity of money flatlined. The human-centric consumer economy, 70% of GDP at the time, withered. We probably could have figured this out sooner if we just asked how much money machines spend on discretionary goods. (Hint: it’s zero.)" And all this could possibly kick in by 2028.  The...

So, how bad is this going to get? This week? For how many years we Boomers have left? Dow Jones Industrial Average Index Index: DJI Compare 48,811.03 USD ▼  -814.94 (-1.64%) today February 23, 2:55 PM EST   ·   Market Open  

   A group in tech I have consulted with, employed and unemployed, "help" each other for this primary reason: They know that when one gets a big job or a contract they usually will bring in others on the network. So, all the participants keep active on what they can exchange in order to continue being considered useful.  That's the essence of networking. That is, horse trading. Although the transactions might be genial, they are not about what a wonderful talented professional you are and how you deserve a break in your need to earn a good living, get ahead and/or bounce back after chronic unemployment. Reading the Epstein Files made that clear. Those in the loop had something good to trade. Maybe it was prestige as with MIT, Harvard and Stanford or the funds to pay a high fee for tax advice as with Leon Black.  That rigid exchange system is misunderstood by those who had been in stable or rapidly growing sectors. When knocked out of the box they are instructed by th...

A stunner, at least to them. But not to us coaches in the trenches. The middle-aged knowledge worker with blockbuster experience and an advanced degree from a top school becomes a "chronic unemployed." That is, without work for at least six months. They don't understand why they haven't been hired, even in the current challenging job market. They tell their stories over and over again on Reddit.  There is an obvious why they haven't picked up on what's going down. The short version of that is this: Their parents didn't endure the work conditions in The Great Depression. A Boomer, mine did. By time I was born the post-WWII boom economy was starting to kick in. So, yes, their options for earning a living had improved. But, they never stopped talking non-stop how brutal it had been. All of them had, because of their experience, evolved into hollowed-out human beings. What they had to put up with to get and hold work mirrors much of the ethos of the being emp...

Boomers vividly recall the 1960s British John Profumo sex scandal .  That secretary of war, along with the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, stepped down. In addition, there was the high-profile suicide of osteopath Stephen Ward. So, some are wondering: Why no suicides, at least not yet, of any of those caught in the Epstein files fallout. Many of us don't believe Jeffrey Epstein who had the best legal resources and loved himself dearly would commit suicide. Well, according to those I talk with, the chat bots and my own experience with human beings in trouble there are significant differences, at least in America, between the Profumo whatevers and what is going down during the past several years. For one thing, unlike the factors in Profumo, these developments don't involve national security in the US. Ward introduced Christine Keeler to Profumo. She was also involved with a Russian attache.  For another, there were criminal legal actions. Ward was actually on trial for crimina...

On highways those large fully-equipped RVs, with expensive cars hooked up in the back, signal the reward of a life well-lived which provides enough funding to enjoy the golden years. At rest stops, the couples exude the contentment featured in those financial services ads.   But, as we learned from the 2020 film "Nomadland," the RV more often provides last-resort shelter for those whose life choices didn't pan out so well. The real-life Bob Wells guides RVers in survival skills, such as fixing a tire, and there is an introduction to how to pick up paid work on the road. Now, with inflation, especially in housing, continuing there's a new wrinkle to this development. Those in HCOL (high cost of living) areas such as Silicon Valley are renting from "vanlords" RVs to move on up in creature comforts from sleeping in their cars. CNBC  details this emerging lifestyle. Those in it are grateful they can now have space to cook, unlike what was possible in a car. Fro...

Larry Summers Leon Black  Kathy Ruemmler. The feeling is almost universal: They got what they deserve.  In contrast, there's the great divide in the legal sector and more how humans feel about Brad Karp, superstar lawyer and former chair of elite Paul, Weiss.  Today, on Substack there's a conversation between two legal journalists Vivia Chen and David Lat about that binary situation. Like myself they have been obsessive in covering what the Epstein Files have disclosed about Karp's relationship with monster Jeffrey Epstein, the internal coup which stripped him of his chairmanship title and his current state of being. As so many know, there are those who are outraged that Karp, unlike Summers and Ruemmler, still has a job. Essentially they perceive that as a continuity of the abuse of power that the Epstein loopings were all about. If Karp didn't control about a nine-figure book of business, so goes the thinking, he would have been purged. Shame on Paul, Weiss for its m...

Here we are in the volatile and uncertain 2026. We wonder what - be it a dominant institution or powerful individual - will survive for the next 10, 20 or 30 years.  Back in the early 1980s some management consultants looked into that and became famous. Who in business doesn't know the name Tom Peters. They published their findings as the book "In Search of Excellence."  Among the companies which didn't make it was Wang Laboratories (it remained a closed system, sticking with stand-alone word processing as the world was moving toward PC). On a downward trajectory was IBM (which only recently regained its former aura). To duck that fate, the consultants mandated sticking to the knitting, staying close to the customer, being values-oriented and more. Well, more recently Chuck Klosterman has applied that age-old reality - nothing fails like success - to the NFL. In his provocative book "Football" he explains how the business will sour.  The drivers range from...

  Work has become one-dimensional. At least if you want to get in, stay in and maybe move on up. It's all about stardom, that is being an extraordinary performer.  Have doubts? Just take the direction of AI. Who's hired, whose kept on, who gets the stock options are those heavyhitters who can handle the strategy, oversee the bots and edit. BusinessInsider chronicles this development. It extends from tech to sales.   "Workers who are decent at their jobs — but not superstars — are facing a tougher slog in industries like tech, where employers have the upper hand, and AI threatens to automate their roles." It used to be, of course, that the world of work was binary. There were the stars and the good-enoughs. The former got to the top. The latter were able to survive if they didn't mess up politically. The dawn of the star paradigm was outlined by litigation star at elite Paul, Weiss Brad Karp back in 2021. In an interview with Bloomberg Law Karp hammered how the b...

  Some who have lost traction because of the Epstein Files have a next.  They will have to lay low, do good works and then orchestrate a credible reset. They are likable.  As Hedrick Smith hammered in his iconic book "The Power Game," likability is a force field. It allows power players to get significant things done, usually without a lot of heavy lifting. Among those with a future, despite Epstein fallout, probably include former US President Bill Clinton, former leader at law firm Paul, Weiss Brad Karp and Yale professor Dale Gelerneter who was a victim of the unabomber.  Others in this volatile economy, driven by technology, should pay attention to the Likability Score. During the depths of The Great Depression Dale Carnegie was saluted as a genius in human relations. He systematized the fundamentals of how to be liked. First in the courses he taught at the Y, then in his bestseller right up to current times "How to Win Friends and Influence People"  Carneg...

  Sure, the glory days of public relations are over. But brand equity still counts a lot. And the value of that should be eroding at Goldman Sachs, all-too-loyal to its top lawyer Kathy Ruemmler. Shareholders push-back , among other pressure points, has already triggered her stepping down. But she's been allowed a genteel exit. That includes staying on the job until June 30, 2026. There was also the gush by the institution's CEO David Solomon in the official announcement. But, now that nicely positioned and packaged soft landing should be blown up. Ruemmler should be sent packing now. And what about implications for compensation, including stock options? That is, if Goldman Sachs wants to remain credible to its constituents, especially shareholders. Today the stock price is down 13.22 (11:30 AM ET). The latest and perhaps most damning snippet from the Epstein Files is what was just made public: Ruemmler's handling of non-public information back in 2012. It was related to t...

 The Department of Justice announced all the Epstein Files had been released. Whether the public believed that or not was irrelevant. It signaled that the fallout from those disclosures had peaked and those in the loop could move on to reputational repair. And their next. At Goldman Sachs top lawyer Kathy Ruemmler, after announcing she was stepping down, is reported to have hired a crisis-management firm. Look to the future ... But the heat has been turned back up. And in a different way: The focus on the identified "miscreants" be considered for legal action. Moreover, the whole influence dynamic - who opens doors for whom - could be subjected to greater scrutiny. Was well-connected Ruemmler properly vetted before being hired by the finance giant?  The game-changer is th e arrest of former Prince Andrew for alleged wrongdoing while in public office. In my coaching the fear is damage to the brandname of the individual and the institution. Not legal action. Usually that issue ...

  But, will Congress save our monthly Social Security payment from a 20% cut in six years? Can anyone envision the profound financial suffering that would inflict? Dow Jones Industrial Average Index Index: DJI Compare 49,809.74 USD ▲  +276.55 (+0.56%) today February 18, 10:02 AM EST  ·  Market Open

  Blessed. Those of us born after WW II. That's how it was. The GI bill was the beginning of universal access to college. The post-war economic boom would be kicking off. Unlike our parents, many immigrants, we wouldn't have been broken in spirit by The Great Depression. Authority figures were socializing us in the graces of the middle class and above. Always use correct grammar. Make friends and influence people. Go to a WASPy church. Yesyesyes, we could become that era's analogue of a Larry Summers, Leon Black, Kathy Ruemmler and more.  Now, through the Epstein Files we have confirmed that maybe the values we were born into were the right way to live. Was all that scramble to become upper middle class so misguided? Actually, impossible? Now we also know what it's like. There is the highly educated leader who held big jobs. Larry Summers. He expected sexual favors in return for snippets of mentoring. He uses the crude expression of going "horizontal." So, tha...

  Once glam and dripping with creative cool, the advertising sector is crashing, documents The Wall Street Journal.  The 3,000 jobs lost last December had represented just the tip of the iceberg. Bigger signs of existential trouble are these: "The market capitalization of Ogilvy parent  WPP  ... has fallen from more than $30 billion in 2017 to less than $4 billion today ...  Publicis Groupe  saw its  shares fall sharply  in February after its outlook failed to dispel investor concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on its business." Amidst this implosion one model is proving effective. Unlike the ethos of the old-line ad agencies it celebrates being midwestern and is based there for cost-efficiency, doesn't aim for rapid growth positioning that as stability, is low-tech and has a close interface with clients. That's the Bark Firm, housed in Casper, Wyoming. Operating in the brand space since 2009, it's thriving.  Could that...