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January 22, 2008
Soundbites

How global trends impact economy
Where is the global economy headed, and what does it mean to business and individuals? Professor Jeff Rosensweig, director of the Global Perspectives Program at Goizueta Business School, addressed this topic at a recent Evening MBA “Bring Your Boss to Breakfast” event.

Rosensweig said the crystal ball has rarely been so clouded. “The economy is buffeted by concerns regarding geopolitics, terrorism, wars, along with the unfolding credit crisis. No one really knows whether financial problems set off by the subprime mortgage mess will throw the economy into recession,” he said. “I do see positive economic and demographic trends longer-term, so I remain optimistic — beyond a volatile 18 months ahead.

“Given the risks, I recommend maximum diversifying of everyone’s wealth.” — Kim Urquhart

Putting humanism in context
Humanism has suffered from its insensitivity to abuses perpetuated in its name related to racism and sexism and its tendency to neglect social inequalities and multiculturalism, said Thomas Flynn in his “Life of the Mind” lecture Jan. 16. The Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Philosophy concluded that these problems don’t mean that humanism should disappear.

“Contextual thinking is what I think humanism has to learn. And I think its challenges are contextual,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean, as one of my professors used to say in graduate school, that we should be so open- minded that our brains fall out. One can have a certain sense of what principles one is committed to.”
— Carol Clark

Political expert on campaign trail
“The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation,” by Professor of Psychology Drew Westen, has been generating interest for its assertion that emotion is more important than logic in determining how people vote.

Westen appeared on “Dan Rather Reports on Politics,” a live broadcast from the Jan. 8 New Hampshire primaries on HDnet.

In one comment, Westen pointed out a psychological aspect that may have factored into Hillary Clinton’s surprise comeback: when she teared up at an event in Portsmouth, N.H. “To a lot of people what it said was, wow, she’s a person after all and she actually has feelings after all,” Westen said. “That was I think a tremendously important moment.” — Kim Urquhart