Washington       Iceland, as many now know though few perhaps care, became a modern contradiction of a small, rich, first world nation suddenly becoming the white bread case study of a failed state and an entire national culture standing for a portrait of fiscal excess and damaged credit. Over night the country went …

New Orleans The daily Obama Administration watch is an on-going fascination of consuming interest. These folks continue to surprise, and not just me, it seems virtually everyone. In short order they seem to have transferred two years of campaigning into a similar war room style operation in the White House as part of the perpetual …

New Orleans In my dealings with them over the years I have found HSBC to be a fascinating company with some wild extremes and some very redeeming qualities as well. Floyd Norris of the Times noted the end of an era with the bull’s-eye shot on the acquisition of Household Finance by HSBC only 7 …