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Do you believe in your heart of hearts that DC leaders intended to pay off most national debt and if no, what do you think will happen? –@Lanacmyk The answer is YES and… NO. 50% of the US debt is owed to…the US Federal Reserve. It’s debatable whether the Federal Reserve can forgive the debt […]

Is the hardest part of writing a novel getting started? –MichaelComeau I am not the best person to ask (I’ve written 4 unpublished novels in my 20s) but I am writing a novel right now so I’ll share my experience with that: I like Walter Mosely’s recent book on “how to write a novel”. It’s […]

Is the hardest part of writing a novel getting started? -@MichaelComeau I like Walter Mosley’s recent book on “How to Write a Novel”. It’s a short book because his main advice can be summarized in one line: Write 500 words a day. A novel is about 60,000 words. So in 120 days (4 months) you […]

I feel an overwhelming urge to start a business.  I work as a manager at a gym.  I respect the owner a lot and he dangles the idea of me owning part of his next gym.  Should I view my boss as someone who I can talk to about my desire to be an entrepreneur? […]

In a business, is an idea the most valuable part of the creation? –@greenjobseeker No! I’ll give you an example: In 2006 I had an offer from a bank to buy the fund of hedge funds I was managing. The offer was a good offer except… they wanted me to sign a six year employment […]

In yesterday’s email, I explained how the secret to saving cities was not to “think outside the box,” but rather to smash the box. As promised, here are some of my “destroy the box” ideas for Cities 2.0. A) CITYBUCKS (e.g. NYCBucks, LABucks, etc.) A big problem facing cities is our addiction to Amazon. I […]

I don’t care how many people talk about “grit” or “energy.” I don’t care about the history or the romance of a city. “Grit” won’t generate the money needed to pay garbage collectors, or teachers, or healthcare workers. People said to me, “Why don’t you focus on solutions instead of just writing that NYC is […]