2011 has begun with a bang. January saw Sudan split in two; February, great upheaval in the Middle East; March, a tri-fold disaster in Japan. April, always a hectic month, saw historic numbers of tornadoes in the U.S. but also the resolution to the civil war in Cote D'Ivoire. On May 2nd President Obama declared that Osama bin Laden had been caught and killed in Pakistan right under the noses of our so-called partner's military town of Abbottabad. In so many ways, 2011 has been about waking up: awakening to the lifespan of dictators, the real dangers of nuclear energy, the proximity of the effects of global warming. Importantly, the youth of the Middle East, and their parents behind them, finally reached critical mass in their belief that change was possible and they could speak for and make it themselves. These revolutions are as much about the awakening of the people to their own power as they are wake-up calls for regimes under which they suffered. Despotism, given the right mix of youth, anger and joblessness, will always fail in the end. Time is essentially on the people's side. It is now time for the remaining stalwarts of the world to awaken -- none more so than the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)/military complex.
They have been called many names in the wake of events which revealed that Osama bin Laden, America's public enemy number one, lived for years in a compound within earshot of Pakistan's military academy in Abbottabad. Were the Pakistani military and its intelligence arm incompetent or complicit? The Pakistanis cannot both get American military aid meant to help them find bin Laden and not come under severe heat for not finding him when he was in their very own backyard. And yet they are. Speaking before the Pakistani Parliament, Intelligence Chief Shuja Pasha condemned the raid against bin Laden and emphasized that America's violation of Pakistani sovereignty was unacceptable. At the close of the eleven-hour meeting, even those members of Parliament most skeptical of the ISI fell in ranks behind Pasha. His offers to resign have been denied. While Pakistani officials pretend to brew with anger at America's intrusion, they are not providing answers for the really important questions: why did America keep the ISI in the dark about the raid in the first place? Why was Osama bin Laden found in Abbottabad and why are so many other groups such as the Haqqani network still living in peace in Pakistan?
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Every now and again, a story appears that makes you realize that you've been trapped on the merry-go-round for way too long. The story in question appears Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, which quite properly examines the resurgence of "boutique" investment banks against "bulge bracket firms." (Both terms lack a certain precision, which no one seems eager to provide them; the notion of a "bulge bracket" is particularly dubious historically. But never mind, like the loose use of the word "bank," they've both become popular and ubiquitous.) The story is pegged to strong fourth-quarter earnings from predominately advisory shops like Lazard, Evercore and Greenhill & Co. These firms showed strong growth in advisory revenues, the paper reported, versus declines at the big boys, like J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. Morgan Stanley was flat and that eternal outlier, Goldman, Sachs & Co., saw 9% growth, which given its market share, is a whopping increase.
Whether these numbers really justify the thesis of the story -- that they "highlight how the boutiques are slowly draining talent and business from Wall Street's behemoths, the so-called [ah, now it's someone else's fault] bulge-bracket firms" -- is really anyone's guess. After all, the quote the paper lines up to support that conclusion comes from Greenhill's chief executive Scott Bok, who is not only talking up his own book but who seems to be carefully describing market share gains over "the past year or so," not some fundamental talent shift.
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This is going to be a good year for you. Why am I so positive? I recently came across some evidence to back up my sunny forecast. My friend John C. Norcross, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Scranton and coauthor of the book "Changing for Good," recently shared some research with me. According to his research published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, between 40 percent and 50 percent of adults in the United States will make New Year's resolutions and two-thirds will concern life threatening behaviors (smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity). In fact, 40-46 percent of New Year's resolvers will be successful at six months. Contrary to conventional opinion, a considerable proportion of New Year resolvers do succeed. This gives me enormous hope and strengthens my resolve to help you with a very important resolution: helping you lose weight.
New Year's resolutions are a teachable moments, and Dr. Norcross shared with me that you are 10 times more likely to change by making a New Year's resolution than someone with identical goals and motivation who does not make a resolution. For the two-thirds of all Americans who are overweight or obese, this could be life saving information. The stark reality is that carrying excess body fat puts you at greater risk heart disease, cancer, diabetes and stroke. This is a resolution you must take very seriously. I want you to look at this year's resolution a little differently -- not as a promise to lose a certain amount of pounds but rather an investment in yourself because you are worth it.
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On May 24th of this year I wrote a piece for the Huffington Post called, "Why the Sex in Our Marriage Disappeared." It described an eight year marriage with little to no sex and the events leading up to that sorry state. I had 485 comments on the article in the Huffington Post and another fifty that came to my website, www.sharynwolf.com. Most were in support of my story and very empathic, although a substantial number of people said, "you stole the best years of his life" and "I'm sick and tired of the man being blamed..."
I would say about half the responses to the article were from other people caught in sexless marriages. There were an infinite number of reasons that they gave; one partner had been caught cheating. The wife went through menopause and the husband says she lost desire. Fighting kept them in separate beds. An illness made sex difficult. And, sometimes there was no discernable reason. The sex just died. And, each person who wrote me said that no one but they knew what was really going on behind closed doors. These couples appear to be happy and their lack of sex is a total secret to the world. Many said they could not believe that the whole world saw them as well adjusted couples when they were anything but. Some couples were miserable in this status, while a decent number had become numb to it long ago and took it for granted. Some even said they had good marriages and that sex was a very small part of what makes a good marriage--companionship was much more important to them.
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