Condé Nast Portfolio, May 2008
The 73 Biggest Brains in Business
Brilliance comes in many forms, whether it's founding a startup that kicks sand in Microsoft's face or creating an affordable car for the developing world. A small number of innovators influence the rest of the influencers in business. Plus: The Brilliant Parents, Used to Be Brilliant, and Brilliantly Evil. Read more
Features
The Pentagon's $1 Trillion Problem
The Pentagon got spanked for its infamous $640 toilet seats. But two decades and billions of dollars later, the military budget is still a mess. Will the Defense Department ever pass an audit? Read more
How Mickey Got His Groove Back
First, the Disney machine found a moneymaker in a character called Hannah Montana. Then it faced a quandary: how to keep making money from its superstar, Miley Cyrus, once she grew up. Read more
Wild Card
With her new $1.2 billion casino, Pansy Ho has become the face of gambling in booming Macao. But her family's business won't hit the jackpot unless she can charm U.S. regulators into overlooking her father's troublesome ties to organized crime. Read more
The Taming of Merrill Lynch
John Thain scaled Goldman Sachs and went on to save the New York Stock Exchange. Now the new Merrill C.E.O. is facing a real challenge. Read more
CULTURE INC.
Horse Cents
A bottled-water magnate from Queens, New York, entered the horseracing business for fun; $10 million and 150 horses later, he has a serious hobby on his hands. Read more
Keeping Up With Jones
Can the new Indiana Jones movie shed its 1980s sheen to compete in today's multiplex marketplace? An index of Indy metrics—from the box office to the divorce courts. Read more
Power House
his spring, Christie's is betting that a Modern architectural masterpiece can sell at auction—as a work of art. Read more
If You Build It ...
After two decades of planning, ground still has not been broken on the national monument to Martin Luther King Jr. Standing in the way: $7 million and—shockingly enough—bureaucratic red tape. Read more
Rash or Rational?
Book review: Do people basically make good decisions? Or should society give us a little push? Read more
COLUMNS
The Worst Investment in America?
The era of press barons is a mere memory—yet the Zells and the Murdochs are still snapping up broadsheets. Why on earth would anyone buy a newspaper these days? Read more
The Great Depression Debate
If bailouts are going to rule the new era on Wall Street, regulators will need less Greenspan-style lenience and more F.D.R.-style force. Read more
Mr. Personalities
Could a President McCain mend the economy and fix the tax system? That would depend on which version of the G.O.P. candidate took office. Read more
The Escort Economy
Eliot Spitzer didn't come close to paying the highest price for an elite call-girl visit. There's a lot of money changing hands at the top of the world's oldest profession. Read more
It's (Really) the Economy, Stupid
Global warming, health-care reform, Iraq: Every campaign issue could get swamped by our financial crisis. Read more
BRIEF
Barrel Fever
Can the price of crude return to earth by summer's end? Read more
The Company Car
The economy may be in neutral, but C.E.O.'s are still treated to top-notch rides. Read more
A Goal-Oriented Move
Three years after the $1.5 billion purchase of the world's best-known soccer team. Read more
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Real Business, Real Results
Did anyone at Microsoft ever watch the (gasp!) offensively funny show Family Guy?
Ex-Morgan Stanley exec Zoe Cruz is now heading her own hedge fund. Are Wall Street's leaders done?
Martha, Bernie and Skilling know that what you wear for court can go a long way in public perception.
spotlight on
Health Care
Bad to the Bone No More
Companies such as General Mills say they're stepping up efforts to change employees' bad
behavior and promote healthier lifestyles.
Read More
