I'm ready for relief from this month’s miserable news cycles -- a holiday – packing a stack of books and declaring a noise-free zone on a sunny balcony overlooking a remote island harbor.
It’s just been one dispiriting set of headlines after another:
- The Brexit vote has signaled years of rancor to come in Europe, trashed the British pound, roiled markets around the world, and encouraged narrow and nasty political movements in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom itself.
- The mass shooting at the Pulse club in Orland illuminated yet again the inexcusable paralysis of America’s leadership to act with meaningful effect over the continuing slaughter inflicted by the demented who wield firearms of military design against innocent civilians.
- Political discourse is dominated by the exploitive rhetoric of fear, bigotry and uninformed sloganeering – abetted by media whose coverage is too devoted to filling their channels to call out the torrents of ignorance and mendacity.
- Even in what should be the relief of world sports – Brazil’s multiple dysfunctionalities threaten the health and safety of the up-coming Olympics, the European and American soccer competitions are shadowed by the ever-unfolding of FIFA’s top-down corruption, and history wholly justifies the anxiety that the Chicago Cubs will find a way to topple from their unexpected perch atop the central division of the National League.
Bags are packed, and tickets in hand. I’ll be back toward the end of July.
Waiting then, along with developments in the global-scale events flagged above, will be a list of topics more familiar to examination in this space:
- Can the new leadership at Valiant rescue the company from the dubious rubble of Michael Pearson’s over-reaching business model?
- Will KPMG’s resignation as auditor of FIFA draw a line under whatever exposure lies lurking in their long-prior relationship?
- What impact does the Vatican’s “suspension” of PwC’s mandate to conduct a first-ever audit of the Holy See have on the credibility of the Church’s claim to transparency and accountability?
- What is the likelihood that the termination by Walgreens of the discredited testing services of fallen unicorn Theranos will bring a new era of due diligence and grown-up assessment to the dream-world of start-ups selling unproven fantasies to the credulous?
- And, to give the wheel of mis-fortune a spin, where will the next inevitable rogue trader or malfeasant CEO or Ponzi schemer emerge to inflict a fatal blow on the fortunes of an enterprise now cruising along in clueless over-confidence?
News is sure to some, on all of these and more.
Until then, try to relax and enjoy the summer.
Thanks for joining this dialog. Please share with friends and colleagues. Comments are welcome, and subscription sign-up is easy and free, both on the Main page.