This turn of a phrase was widely reported from an address on the state of the US economy by President Obama’s chief economic adviser, Larry Summers.  He spoke these words last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Summers is a very smart guy; he’s past president of Harvard University and former Secretary of the Treasury under Bill Clinton.

His quotable quote is consistent with what I’m hearing from the business owners who are members of my Vistage CEO …

The lesson I learned in my economic classes in graduate school that has had the greatest impact on me is what economists call “The Law of Unintended Consequences.” This term is credited to sociologist Robert K. Merton (who also coined the term “self-fulfilling prophecy”) and states that contrary to the belief that only the results originally intended by a particular action will occur, unintended results also occur. And usually, these unintended results are unforeseen and undesired.

An unintended consequence of my …

I had lunch with my friend Mike last Friday. We’ve been doing this once a quarter on a Friday afternoon since the fall of 2002. All 29 of our quarterly lunch meetings have been at R bistro (http://www.rbistro.com/), chef Regina Mehallick’s great eatery on Mass Ave in Indianapolis’ arts district.

I met Mike in 1999; the #1 thing we have in common (other than the same first name) is being members of what Fast Company Magazine calls free lance nation. …

The quote in the subject line is attributed to Frank Easterbrook, Chief Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Easterbrook is a graduate of the University of Chicago School of Law and is a senior lecturer at the school. He’s one of the big thinkers affiliated with this university who contribute to its reputation as advocates for the power of the free market. This school of thought is widely known as the “Chicago School.” I’m …

David Hutton made an excellent presentation to my Vistage CEO group last week; it’s titled “Leadership at 12 O’clock High.”More than 250 Vistage groups have seen it. David uses cuts from the 1949 movie of the same name to examine the leadership styles of two of the film’s leading characters. One is Colonel Keith Davenport; the other is Brig. General Frank Savage, who replaces Col. Davenport as the commander of the 918th Bomb Group. Hutton’s presentation compares and contrasts the …

I attended my monthly Vistage chair group meeting late in August and the speaker, Bonnie Burns did a DISC profile of each of the chairs. This was the fourth time that I can remember being profiled using DISC. This one was consistent with the last and I think it’s a pretty accurate. I’m delighted to say that it profiles someone who’s wired to be an executive coach.

DISC is a four quadrant behavior model that profiles individuals based on these behavior …

Jim Fusilli rocks. In addition to being a bestselling mystery novelist, he writes about rock ‘n roll, and has been the Wall Street Journal’s rock and pop critic since 1983.

Last Thursday, he wrote a column in the Journal titled “Woodstock’s Forgotten Man.” It was the story of Bert Sommer; Fusilli called him “the lost bard of Woodstock.” He performed on the first day of the festival; his 10 song set is considered by many to be the best show of …

I first saw her late one afternoon on a cold winter day during my freshman year of college. Our dorm room looked out on the building where the studio arts classes were held. Our window lined up with a window into one of the studios. She was two dimensional, on a canvas nearly five feet tall, painted only in shades of blue and white. I called her the Blue Nude. I was an eyewitness to her creation, hurrying back to …

One of my favorite rock bands is Fountains of Wayne, a power pop band named for a lawn ornament store in Wayne, New Jersey that found its 15 minutes of fame in an episode of The Sopranos. Though the band is best known for the song “Stacy’s Mom” on their “Welcome Interstate Managers” CD, my favorite FoW song is “Red Dragon Tattoo.” It tells the story of a teen age boy who goes to Coney Island to get a tattoo …

Here are a dozen interesting (or not) things about me…