From The Times of London September 24, 2009   Russia opens door to sanctions on Iran

    Teaching Work Values to Children of WealthBy PAUL SULLIVANSteven D. Hayworth, chief executive of Gibraltar Private Bank and Trust, is thrilled that his daughter will be working this summer at a women’s clothing store before heading to college in the fall. It is not the particular job that pleases Mr. Hayworth. Rather, he is hoping his daughter will make the connection between how much she earns each day and what that will buy. “As a parent who has worked his whole life and has had a little bit of success in my career, one of the huge life lessons I learned early on is the value of a dollar,” said Mr. Hayworth, whose bank is based in Coral Gables, Fla. “Particularly for children of upper-middle-class and affluent families, there’s no perspective on value. When the new Range Rover pulls into the driveway, there’s no concept of how many hours of hard work went into owning that vehicle.” Unlike many collegebound children today, Mr. Hayworth’s daughter would have had no worries if she had not been able to find a job. She could have spent the summer by the pool knowing her parents had the money to put her through college. But the fact that she does not have to work is exactly what worries Mr. Hayworth and many other affluent parents. The recession and tight job market have made it imperative to teach their children the value of work. They worry about that, it seems, more than about any short-term swings in their portfolios. “This is a tremendously confusing time for families,” said Matthew E. Brady, head of wealth advisory in the Americas for Barclays Wealth. “The issue of children is the most important topic that affects our clients. It’s the topic that comes up most consistently in every conversation.” A whole coterie of experts has sprung up in the last few years to coach the children of affluence into the working world. Gibraltar offers classes in “financial life skills” that cover topics including saving, preventing debt and how money affects friendships. J. P. Morgan Private Bank offers what it calls “Next Generation Leadership” seminars. This may seem unnecessary, unfair or worse to parents with fewer means and just as many concerns about their children’s futures. But the central issue for all parents is the same: how do you raise children who are productive? With summer near, this is a good time to review how parents can truly help their children. HOUSE RULES Parents of various means are facing the prospect of adult children who have to move home because they cannot find a job. Brad Klontz, a financial psychologist and co-author of “Mind Over Money” (Broadway Business, 2009), said parents should set ground rules from the outset, including charging children rent. Without rules, there is a risk of what he calls “financial enabling.” “It’s financial help that hurts,” he said. “You condition them that…

  CNN Pundit Draws Ire From All SidesBy SHAILA DEWANMACON, Ga. — In his seven weeks as one of CNN’s newest contributors, Erick Erickson has made scarcely more than a dozen appearances on the network. But his every utterance — every Twitter message, blog post and radio rant — has been parsed with the rigor usually reserved for a Supreme Court nominee. Liberal detractors have obsessively cataloged his right-wing rhetorical excesses, from calling Michelle Obama a “Marxist harpy” to a flip accusation that the former Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter molested children and animals. Even the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, criticized Mr. Erickson for suggesting that he would threaten a census worker, saying the comment “should concern CNN.” The Boston Globe protested what it called “one more screamer on cable.” What critics have not noted is that Mr. Erickson, the editor of the influential conservative blog RedState, is as hard on many Republicans and conservatives as he is on Democrats. He has accused Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, of playing the race card; suggested that RedState readers send toy balls to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, during budget negotiations; and, of late, begun exhorting Tea Party followers (he considers himself one) to move beyond protests and get involved in the nitty-gritty of precinct-level politics. “I always think there are more people who hate me on my own side than there are on the left,” Mr. Erickson said on a recent afternoon as he trundled from Macon City Hall, where he serves as a councilman, to his favorite coffee shop with his new iPad in tow. “Apparently the only thing that left and right agree on in America is that conservatives shouldn’t be on CNN — they should be on Fox.” Mr. Erickson, 34, was hired by CNN as a commentator in late March, primarily to appear on the new show “John King U.S.A.” Unlike most of his peers at the network, including James Carville and Donna Brazile, top Democratic strategists with presidential campaigns under their belt, Mr. Erickson is a party outsider who spends much of his time needling Republicans to purge Washington insiders and opportunists. After he was hired, CNN was accused of pandering to the right and abandoning its commitment to credibility. David Bohrman, the network’s senior vice president for programming, said, “We’re just trying to bring in the influencers who have something to say.” A friend of Senator Read more...

 Spending Soars on Internet's PlumbingThe need to reach customers and employees over the Web is driving furious demand for server systems, the machines that power corporate computer rooms. Read Article    

 Has Obama failed the Invictus leadership test?Invictus has a message, according to Clint Eastwood – and it's that Barack Obama is no Nelson MandelaMorgan Freeman and Matt Damon in Invictus (2009)What a deceptively slippery customer Clint Eastwood can be at times. There we were thinking his latest film, the Oscar-nominated Invictus, was simply a burnished monument to the magnificence of Nelson Mandela when it turns out to be something more besides. Invictus, it transpires, is also a handy yardstick against which to measure the current US president. And sad to say he comes up wanting."You can win an election, but does that mean you can govern a country?," mused Eastwood in a recent interview, comparing the achievements of Barack Obama to that of his movie hero. "Up until now [Obama] hasn't shown much strength of leadership."One might have thought Obama's year could not get any worse, what with the election of that guy with the truck, the resurgence of Sarah Palin and that song about how the people have finally got wise to his trick of slaughtering their grandparents in the name of universal health care. Yet here comes the former Dirty Harry, shaking his head in solemn disapproval and channelling the spirit of the late Lloyd Bentsen to argue that he knows Nelson Mandela and that the president is no Nelson Mandela. Fortunately he also extends an olive branch. "I hope he sees my film and understands the message," Eastwood added.Assuming that Obama is too busy right now, the message in a nutshell runs something like this. Fresh out of Robben Island, Mandela inherits a divided country and proceeds to knit it together through the medium of rugby. South Africa lifts the 1995 World Cup, white cops dance with black kids in the street and everyone lives happily ever after. This is because Mandela is such a warm, wise and far-sighted statesman; a force for good in a nation struggling to consign its shabby past to the dustbin of history. The message, basically, is that Mandela is great.Let's not cast doubt on Eastwood's integrity here. Presumably the director has always felt this way about Mandela, even back in the 80s when his fellow Republicans were reviling the man as a terrorist and petitioning against his release from prison. But still: using a film about Mandela as a means to expose the all-round uselessness of Obama? That seems a bit rich. Is this truly "the message" of Invictus? And if so, can we assume that it's one that Mandela (reportedly a close collaborator on the film) signed off personally?