During the whole stock market crash and credit crisis during the past two months, I've been reading Alice Schroeder's biography of Warren Buffett. (It's a big book and he's still alive!) I highly recommend reading this book if you're feeling lousy about the financial and economic crisis; you get an incredible perspective on the highs and lows in the U.S. economy over the past 60 years. I particularly enjoyed reading the following paragraph and remembering what it felt like to me, as a newly minted business editor trying to maintain some perspective in a rough time: "By mid-1979, the stock market was sunk in gloom, and orders for stocks, Buffett said were placed "with an eyedropper." The Dow had languished for ...

When I spent a week in Buenos Aires recently, I left my Blackberry behind and just used my iPhone for a week. My conclusion: I don't like my iPhone 3G and was happy (or should I say, less unhappy) to get back to the U.S. and my Blackberry. I am not here to sing the praises of the Blackberry; the reason I had to leave it behind is that Verizon said it wouldn't work in Argentina. This is a model of the Blackberry labeled "World Edition" (otherwise known as 8830). It didn't work in Peru either, when I went there about 18 months ago. And it didn't work right away in England when I went there in March this year; it ...

I got this email from a good friend, whom I'd prefer not to identify publicly. But I thought his sentiment was relevant to our current times so we decided to share it with you posthaste. "Yesterday I ran into an old friend. As his hedge fund has tanked, he has lost 20 pounds (skinny to start with), is taking Valium every night to sleep, has night sweats and heart palpitations. "He runs his own firm. He is the boss. But he is not a warrior. He is seeing disaster at every turn, rather than openings where he can attack. He is questioning himself and doubting his own fighting instincts, consumed with how his actions might be viewed, rather than taking swift ...