Fuel Cells in Your Future? The Market Should Say Yes!

Power to the People: How the Coming Energy Revolution Will Transform an Industry, Change Our Lives and Maybe Even Save the Planet , by Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 358 pages, $25.

President George W. Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address will always be remembered for his dubious assertions about Iraqi Read More

Hed: Fuel Cells in Your Future? The Market Should Say Yes!

Power to the People: How the Coming Energy Revolution Will Transform an Industry, Change Our Lives and Maybe Even Save the Planet, by Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 358 pages, $25.

President George W. Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address will always be remembered for his dubious assertions about Iraqi weapons of Read More

Cry Me a River

Producer Marty Richards won over Oscar judges last year and claimed Best Picture honors for his screen version of Chicago , but the venerated producer can’t seem to win over prospective buyers for his 16-room home at the River House, on East 52nd Street at the East River.

Last week, the 71-year-old showman lopped another Read More

Pile On, Publishers! Dueling Titles Hit the Shelves

“If one’s good, two (or more) would be better” might as well be the official mantra of nonfiction publishingthesedays. Name any high-profile subject and you can pretty much bet that if one house is publishing a book on it, another house won’t be far behind. Much of the time, competing titles on the same topic Read More

Martha Pays the Price For Being a Woman

To the satisfaction of many, the bitch got hers. That’s how many people reacted to the news that Martha has been indicted for a trashy bunch of unimpressive federal charges. Martha is a bitch.

Even in her made-for-TV movie, they have scenes of Martha being richly bitchy to others, especially underlings. Stories abound of Martha Read More

Playing Hot Potato With Risk-Scary Stories From the Markets

Infectious Greed: How Deceit and Risk Corrupted the Financial Markets , by Frank Partnoy. Times Books, 412 pages, $27.50

“[A]ny appearance of control in today’s financial markets is only an illusion …. The truth is that the markets have been, and are, spinning out of control.” These alarming words come from Frank Partnoy, a former Read More

Rhodes Scholar Chesa Boudin: Think You’ve Got Troubles?

It’s become second nature in this country to blame society and the circumstances of one’s childhood for one’s problems. Courage, genius and creativity-all of these don’t stand a chance against a personal history plagued by misfortune and bad luck. Only by fixing society, the thinking goes, can we make sure that our youngsters achieve their Read More

They Take Responsibility, But They Never Get Fired

Normally, I shudder every time I read a new layoff announcement, but I took the news that J.P. Morgan was going to drop 2,000 people with only qualified gloom. According to the papers, many of the dumpees are those merger-and-acquisition types, those hugely overpaid buckos who work the initial-public-offering scams.

Since I can no longer Read More

Like a Stroll Through Chelsea: A Guide to Art-Scene Flummery

Let me begin this review of Art Now , Taschen’s “all-you-need guide to contemporary art,” with a practical question: Who buys this kind of thing? I say “thing” and not “book” because I can’t imagine anyone sitting down to read it. While this compendium of “137 artists at the Rise of the New Millennium” does Read More

Currently Hanging

Like a Stroll Through Chelsea: A Guide to Art-Scene Flummery

Let me begin this review of Art Now , Taschen’s “all-you-need guide to contemporary art,” with a practical question: Who buys this kind of thing? I say “thing” and not “book” because I can’t imagine anyone sitting down to read it. While this compendium Read More