The politically delayed confirmation of Chuck Hagel to become the Secretary of Defense could well be a pivot point, and an essential one, for the future of the Department.  It is time for this most important arm of the government to become more aligned with 21^st century realities.

Much of the thinking in the United States, and particularly in Washington D.C., is what I call legacy thinking.  We have powered into the 21^st century thinking thoughts from the 20^th century.  Certainly if one is over 40 much of what one thinks was shaped in the last century.  If you first developed …

Debt is one of the primary underpinnings of the economic turbulence we are now experiencing.  In the last 50 years debt has gone from something occasional to something universal, embraced and now endemic. Borrow against the future to pay for today.  Debt, debt, debt, debt is like the drip, drip, drip, drip of a faucet that slowing fills up a sink and overflows.  The four debts referred to here are personal, corporate, city and state and federal.  All of them feel as though they are beginning to come home to roost and the outlook, if not faced and dealt with, …

Thinking a lot about the future as I do, I keep coming back to the fact that there are five or six fundamental and critical issues that face America in this still new century. The degree to which we begin to face these key issues and to start to do so right now will determine whether our greatness as a nation will continue and build upon our magnificent history. 

Will America continue to be the great nation we still think it is?  As a nation will we be able to adjust to the rapidly changing realities of the world?  As we …