Len Zwelling

“Alternative Facts”: Yours, Mine, and Those Of The Presidents By Leonard Zwelling I think that we all readily accept the fact that we may be living in an alternative universe inhabited by cats whose bodies fade but leave their grins behind, and “hookah smoking caterpillars.” Alice is alive and well and living in Washington, DC […]

Carnage Vs. Hope: Trump vs. Obama, Springsteen vs. Taylor, DePinho vs. ? By Leonard Zwelling The picture Donald Trump painted of America during his Inaugural Address was like the lyrics of a Bruce Springsteen song. “Factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; An education system flush with cash, but which leaves our

Whistleblowing By Leonard Zwelling http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/outside-the-boardroom/article/PBS-ethics-program-reexamines-Enron-scandal-10866814.php This is an interesting post that went up on the Houston Chronicle website on January 19 from Chris Tomlinson. It describes a new show about Enron and it reminded me of the fact that many current Houstonians weren’t here when the jobs and pensions of thousands were tossed into the

Maybe We Can Tweet The Deficit Away Like The Donald Tweets Away The ACA By Leonard Zwelling By now it should be clear to one and all that a tweet is not what Barbara Walters gives her pet dog. No, it’s usually a 140-character rant on Twitter and is favored as a mode of communication

The Undoing Project By Leonard Zwelling This is the title of a new book. It was written by Michael Lewis, the best-selling author of Moneyball and The Big Short along with many books that have in common the explication of complexity. The new book tells the story of Danny Kahneman and Amos Tversky. The two

Emoluments and No-Confidence 101 Or Don’t Bring A Knife To A Gun Fight By Leonard Zwelling e·mol·u·ment noun: emolument; plural noun: emoluments a salary, fee, or profit from employment or office. The Emoluments Clause is Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution. It prohibits any “Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the

Amateurs Need Not Apply, But They Often Get Chosen By Leonard Zwelling My last administrative job at MD Anderson, or for sure the last the leadership would let me have, was as the Director of the Pharmaceutical Development Center. This was a small group of faculty drug developers that was part of Experimental Therapeutics. At

Silly Presidents, Silly Precedents By Leonard Zwelling It’s really getting hard to take some of our leaders seriously. The President-elect of the United States won’t agree to have a news conference, but will communicate like a 14-year old girl using 140-character tweets concerning issues of international importance. He misstates the truth (I will follow WSJ’s

Are Layoffs A Sign Of Good Or Bad Management? By Leonard Zwelling http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/MD-Anderson-set-to-announce-layoffs-today-10837056.php http://abc13.com/news/watch-live-md-anderson-announces-layoffs/1687649/ http://inside3.mdanderson.org/streams/FullVideoPlayer.cfm?mediaID=9AB90015-DA18-407E-B23B-3DBACA6A360D http://www.click2houston.com/news/md-anderson-to-address-layoff-announcement-thursday http://abc13.com/business/md-anderson-cancer-center-to-cut-800-900-jobs/1687649/ Isn’t that the essential question? When any organization stops turning a profit, even a non-profit, that’s a sure sign that those in charge of that organization are either spending too much, not bringing in enough, or both. At

Health Care Reform And MD Anderson: Can The ACA Explain Some Of The Financial Problem? By Leonard Zwelling Abby Goodnough and Robert Pear authored this long feature in the NY Times on January 3 that describes the lasting effects of the Affordable Care Act. These are the effects that even the GOP pledge to repeal