Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

2.4% Growth Projected for 2012: Sure, I'll take that

How expectations change.  When AP conducted a survey among economists about GDP growth in 2012, the consensus was about 2.4%.  In the go-go 1990s, that would have brought down world stock exchanges to their knees. Now, hey we're thrilled.

POLITICO, of course, is reporting on this number because it has everything to do with who will be sitting in the White House in 2013.  Should the upward trajectory continue, the incumbent will keep his job.  Unlike their usual disciplined pragmatic selves, the GOP is at each other's throats rather than collectively decimating the president.

News Corp: Can lawyer Gerson Zweifach save it?

Can a lawyer parachute into News Corp, parent of Dow Jones, and save it?  That would include solving its legal problems and probably changing the organizational culture.

That's possible if Gerson Zweifach, partner at Williams & Connolly, is appointed general counsel.  Zweifach was the attorney who got former head of the New York Stock Exchange Richard Grasso out of the legal mess put in motion by then sheriff of Wall Street Eliot Spitzer.

Here, in my commentary on Motley Fool, I discuss the kind of change agent Zweifach could become, if News Corp hires him.

New Media Acting Like Old Media: NEWSWEEK BEAST tells us what to think

"Maggie's Moment - Why Thatcher is more important than ever." 

That's the promo in NEWSWEEK BEAST for the opining of Amanda Foreman.  Somehow, that annoys me.  Who is this Amanda Foreman to instruct me on how I should evaluate leadership? 

Back in the days when NEWSWEEK, along with TIME, READER'S DIGEST, and LIFE, ruled the world, sure old media could get away with pontification.  That was just the way it was. 

In class, at least at Snyder High School in Jersey City, NJ where we were being readied to emerge into the world as first-generation college, teachers helped us deconstruct contentions made.

That was then.  Now, we expect all media, even those which still can claim a brandname, to show, not tell and leave it up to what's being called the "networked public" to come to conclusions.  The genius of the late Christopher Hitchens is that he created a world view so compelling that we entered it freely, took a look around, and decided to hang out.  He argued points.  He did not deliver dogma.

Revolt: It's more credible than kvetching

We run from the kevetchers.  We put those who protest on the cover of TIME.  So, anyone with an ounce of emotional intelligence gets it that revolt is the space to be in.

That's what Romesh Ratnesar doesn't mention in the commentary titled "Year of the Fist" in BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK. Organize or join a movement and we are on the way to heroism, with the possibility of martyrdom.  Members of Occupy Wall Street have already attempted to engineer the latter by taking their performance art to the court room. 

Christmas: Not an ordinary work day but still a work day

Not only did I work about seven hours today, Christmas.  The clients I did the assignments for were also working.  They promptly responded to the documents I transmitted to them for review.  I did the course corrections.  One even sent the compensation via Paypal to me today.  Yeah, I also got paid on Christmas.  In addition, I submitted a post to Motley Fool, where I am a freelance blogger.  I wouldn't be surprised if it's reviewed and approved this very day or early tomorrow morning, which is also supposed to be a holiday of sorts.

No, Christmas isn't an ordinary work day but, obviously, in a global economy operating on digital time, it remains a day of work.  For a while now, the "sacred" part of Christmas has been absent.  Actually, no traditional institution comes to mind, which was once treated as "sacred," remains that.  The late Christopher Hitchens helped in that area.  After his hatchet job on Mother Teresa most of us felt foolish being too earnest about anyone or anything.

What would Hitch be doing this Christmas if he were still alive?  My hunch is that he would have been writing, at least a good part of the day.  Then he would have taken time out for a wonderful meal with his family and friends and special wine.

For Whom The Bell Tolls: 5 die in Stamford, CT Christmas fire

About 5 A.M. on Christmas, a fire in a house on the waterfront of Stamford, Connecticut, based in Fairfield County, took the lives of 5 human beings, 3 of them children. 

When I lived for about 2 decades, on and off, in Stamford, I probably would never have met these people as neighbors.  Their house, reports THE NEW YORK TIMES, was valued at about $1.7 million.  My condos were not on the waterfront and were worth peanuts, relatively speaking in Fairfield County.

However, where we had made part of our lives will always remain in our memory banks as "the neighborhood." Centuries ago John Donne observed that no man is an island. When we hear the church bell tolling about a tragedy or a joy, that bell is tolling for us.

All of us who had lived in Stamford, and in our nomadic society that represents a lot of people, know that the bell has tolled great sorrow this Christmas day.

Christmas as Commercial: Those e-mail blasts wishing us such a happy holiday, along with health, happiness

The Pope rails against the commercialization of Christmas.  He would hammer that theme lots harder if he tracked some of our e-mail.  Firms and solo entrepreneurs in just about every industry, ranging from website development to mortgages, have contacted me to wish me such a happy holiday.  In addition, they also have high hopes for my health and happiness. 

For the holiday season 2012, I request they hold their good greetings and remove me from their lists.

Free Agent Economy: Christmas

By the year 2020, there will be about 70 million free agents in the U.S. economy.  That's the prediction of MBO Partners, reports PORTFOLIO.  So, listen up about what to expect.

Since 1987, I have been out here primarily as a free agent.  Sometimes I got lucky and was on retainer.  Most times I had to go out every morning and hunt for dinner, including Fancy Feast for my animal companions, who know their brands.  That meant many tricky Christmases.

In the world of being a free agent the holiday season, as are all holidays, is the worst of times.  If we don't have work or enough of it, we tremble inside, especially with self-doubt.  If we do have business we groan that we will have to back out of some of the social and just-relaxing opportunities of the season. 

This year, plenty of work came in.  One client wants to close the books before 2012 so nicely requested I finish up the pending assignments.  Another client outsourced an assignment to take full advantage of the networking going on.  A third indicated that because he likes my approach, he is giving me lots more.  The deadline is this year.

Yes, I am pleased about the additional revenues.   But, I am also disappointed to be crossing off the list of movies my soulmate and I will not be enjoying.  A Baby Boomer, my gen went out to the movies.  We still count that as a predicable pleasure.  Sigh.  The old saying used to be: life intervened.  Now for more and more of us it's: work came in.

New Marketplace: If we seasoned pros are out there, we're having 1 humiliation daily [at least]

Richard Rohr, author of new book "Falling Upward," tells us he aims for 1 humiliation daily, at least. 

Mmmmnnn, I thought to myself, that sounds like a useful way to frame how we're navigating the new marketplace.  There, we have a glut of talent in almost every category and, with everything changing, no one has all the answers. 

Rohr, a Roman Catholic priest and disciple of Thomas Merton [who warned us that after we climb up the ladder of success we might find it was against the wrong wall], is helping us seasoned professionals manage the second half of our careers. Marketing expert Mary Ann Vlachac, who has piled up so many awards for strategic planning and implemention, tipped me off about Rohr's provocative perspective.

If I buy into Rohr's framework, then I am right on the money.  Yes, I am making my 1 humiliation a day quota easily.  Yesterday, someone from my iconic hometown Jersey City, New Jersey, who isn't a communications player, informed me she is doing a book on one of the town's institutions.  Damn it.  I realized that I hadn't thought of that and might have.  Result: I got it that success in 2011-2012 = mining our experience for out of the box applications.

Wendy Wasserstein: Lessons in Lost & Found

Playwright Wendy Wasserstein will probably never be known.  But now we know many of the reasons why she lived a guarded life, behind a comic exterior and simulated intimacy.

The book "Wendy And The Lost Boys" by Julie Salamon shows us Wasserstein from so many angles.  Eventually, we get it that this talented writer and insecure woman had so much going on, internally and externally, that she herself probably hadn't caught up with who she was.

Wasserstein's life started out as did many Jewish girls with driven immigrant mothers.  She got the message that she better succeed.  Yet, she was the only one of the children [famous investment banker Bruce was her brother] who also got the message that she likely wouldn't. Pudgy, over-emotional, artistic, and prone to only invest her energy into what she liked to do, Wassterstein had her domineering mother Lola very concerned.  After she graduated college with no career direction and no engagement ring, she had herself concerned.

How she went from lost to found was being able to attract those in the world of creative achievement who were willing to help her. The mashup of her latent talent, insecurity and ability to make others feel comfortable attracted establishment figures like Joseph Heller.

Who should read this book?  All of us who have been discouraged enough to be willing to stop trying to find where we fit.