Cal Berkeley's AnnaLee Saxenian has a clear vision of how the global economy is being transformed, and she has revealed it in The New Argonauts (2006, Harvard University Press).

InsideWork's Geoff Finch is headed for some presentations to the finance ministers of a couple of countries that only a few years ago were dedicated socialist regimes. His underlying message to them was going to be that a free market/private enterprise system is a better model than a centrally planned and publicly operated economy. Now he's not so sure he should cite the shining example of the US-style private markets to support his thesis. So what does he present as a good working model?

Geoff Finch, InsideWork's financial expert, returns from doing business in Rwanda. What he experienced there is nothing short of hope for the emergence of a new African economy.

Inspired by a collection Atlantic Magazine reprints under the rubric, "Markets and Morals," Jim Hancock writes, "If behavior measures worldview — if where our feet take us tells us who we truly are — and if, refusing to be content with merely understanding economic climate change, we insist on actually changing the economic climate, then our work is cut out for us."

Dan Wooldridge reflects on what it takes to keep our heads when everyone is losing their's in the midst of the current economic crisis.

Dan Wooldridge writes about the continuing need for men in business to actually understand and practice what it means to give respect to women.

Former Morgan Stanley chief, Phillip Purcell, identifies five lessons bankers must relearn in the 21st Century [the supremacy of profits over revenues, compensation based on sustained results; leverage cuts both ways; diversification; risk management as a business culture]. Geoff Finch describes two more...

Dan Wooldridge proposes that the current economic crisis work toward a solution beginning with the debt load of the American household.

Glenn McMahan measures a recent worldwide study on entrepreneurship against reality on the ground in Brazil. What does it take to help early-stage entrepreneurs create truly innovative, sustainable business models in tough economic times?

In the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown, Martin Marty recalls a panel with his former colleague at the University of Chicago, the economist Milton Friedman, and reflects on the finite limits of human virtue, knowledge, power, and security.

Dan Wooldridge believes generosity, not taking, should be the heart of economies and businesses. Which spirit drives your business?

Nine economic observers recently told the New York Times about the everyday indicators and hunches that check and balance their assessment of the official numbers.