Business & Economy

Columnist Stanley Bing (a pseudonym) satirizes the corporate world in his columns for Fortune and Esquire Magazines. He revels his true identity in this interview. His book “Lloyd—what Happened: A Novel of Business” followed the aspirations of an executive who was climbing the corporate ladder. Bing’s newest book is “What Would Machiavelli Do? The Ends Justify the Means” (Harperbusiness) a satirical how-to book for the Machiavellian-minded in the corporate world.

Publisher Andre Schiffrin director of The New Press, and former head of Pantheon books, talks about the New York publishing world from the business side. He’s just written “The Business of Books,” (Verso) described as part memoir, part history of contemporary publishing.

Journalist Naomi Klein is the author of “No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies” (Picador USA), a look at the global reach of multinational corporations, their pervasive use of branding to sell a concept, the impact on culture and society, and the protest movement that’s resulted.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg on the phrase “thought leader.”

Linguist Geoff Nunberg on the trend among corporate giants to change their names to create a new identity.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reflects on the value of work, upon receiving a letter about her benefits from the Social Security Administration.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers the language of the stock market.

Daniel Gross is a New York-based writer and columnist for Investment News and the author of “Bull Run: Wall Street, the Democrats, and the New Politics of Personal Finance” (PublicAffairs). He has worked as a reporter at the New Republic and Bloomberg Business News. Gross is the author of Forbes Greatest Business Stories of All Time (Wiley, 1996).

Former mail order magnate J. Peterman. His text-heavy apparel catalogs spun stories of adventure, and earned him a place as a fictional character on the hit T-V series "Seinfeld." But his business failed, and now he's written an article in the current issue of "The Harvard Business Review" to tell what happened.

New York Times reporter Douglas Frantz and his wife, journalist Catherine Collins. They've collaborated on a new book about their two years living in Celebration, the city Disney built from scratch in Florida. Their book is "Celebration U.S.A.: Living in Disney's Brave New Town" (Henry Holt & Co.)

New York Times Foreign Affairs columnist Thomas L. Friedman is the author of the new book "The Lexus and The Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization." (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Friedman won two Pulitzer Prizes for his reporting in Lebanon and Israel. His 1989 book "From Beirut to Jerusalem" which was on the NYT's bestseller list for 12-months won the National Book Award for non-fiction. In January 1995, he became The Times Foreign Affairs Columnist. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Brandeis University.

Neil Gershenfeld is author of "When Things Start to Think." (Henry Holt) He talks about his research into the future technology. This includes shoes with computers in them, Refrigerators that tell you when the milk is expired, and coffee cups that know how you like your coffee. He co-directs the Things That Think research consortium at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Ma.

Executive director Richard Feldman of the American Shooting Sports Council which represents gun manufacturers.

Last year New Orleans became the first city to file suit against the gun industry. Chicago followed. And now many other cities (including Philadelphia, Boston, Miami, San Francisco and L.A.) are considering similar actions. Journalist Fox Butterfield writes about crime and criminal justice for The New York Times. He'll discuss these suits as well as one filed in New York by a group of individuals who lost family members from gun violence. Butterfield was a member of the Times writing staff that won a Pulitzer Prize for its publication of The Pentagon Papers.

Senior policy analyst Tom Diaz at the Violence Policy Center, a non-partisan non-profit public policy institute working to reduce gun violence. He's the author of the new book, "Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America" (The New Press). In the book, Diaz writes how in an attempt to increase profits, the gun industry has introduced more aggressive and lethal guns to the public. DIAZ says they do this free from regulation and under a cloak of secrecy.

Bob Ortega is an investigative journalist for The Wall Street Journal. He's the author of the new book, "In Sam We Trust: The Untold Story of Sam Walton and How Wal-Mart Is Devouring America" (Times Business/Random House). The book looks at how Wal-Mart went from a tiny variety store in backwater Arkansas to one of the world's largest corporations. In doing so, Wal-Mart's business practices have been imitated by other businesses and criticized for its impact on communities, and treatment of workers.

Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner talks about his new memoir "Work in Progress," which has been published by Random House. Eisner took over as head of Disney in 1984. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Jane. They have three sons. Disney is now a global entertainment giant. It owns ABC TV, A&E Television, Touchstone Pictures, Miramax Films, ESPN, Lifetime, and nine television stations, ten radio stations, seven daily newspapers, theme parks, housing developments and even a cruise ship.

Journalist and urban critic Roberta Brandes Gratz and an expert in downtown revitalization Norman Mintz. The two have collaborated on the new book "Cities: Back from the Edge: New Life for Downtown." (John Wiley & Sons). In the book they look at downtowns throughout the country that have come back to life and examine what revived them. Their recipe for success includes: preserving or introducing trolley traffic, developing farmers' markets, promoting short blocks, keeping government buildings downtown, and insuring citizen involvement in civic life.

Sleep physiologist Martin Moore-Ede. He is founder and president of Circadian Technologies, Inc., which helps shiftworkers cope with night shifts and rotating work schedules. He provides assistance to companies that are open round the clock. Dr. Moore-Ede is a professor at Harvard Medical School, and is the author of the newly published "The Twenty-Four Hour Society: Understanding Human Limits in a World That Never Stops." (Addison Wesley).

Linguist Geoff Nunberg talks about the new knowledge fad. He says terms that include the word knowledge, like "knowledge workers" and "knowledge assets" are sweeping corporate and academic America.