New York—For the May 2008 issue of Condé Nast Portfolio, the editors of the magazine canvassed scores of C.E.O.’s, economists, and power players for their thoughts on who are the smartest folks in the room and who’s influencing the influencers. From these conversations was born the magazine’s first Brilliant Issue, showcasing 73 of the characters that are changing the way business is done today. Gracing the cover is Max Levchin, the 32-year-old Ukrainian billionaire who built PayPal at 22 and now, 10 years later, is running his sixth startup, Slide.com, a software company that boasts 170 million users. Others include:

•    Game changers Rupert Murdoch, Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, and Jeff Immelt.
•    Connectors Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Muhammad Yunus, and Julian Robertson.
•    Rebels Tina Fey, Marc Jacobs, and Steven Spielberg.
•    Tastemakers Zaha Hadid, Oprah Winfrey, and Karl Lagerfeld.
•    Upstarts Anne Wojcicki, Linda Avey, and Jacqueline Novogratz.

Also on the list are brilliant parents Benjamin and Marsha Emanuel (parents of Zeke, Rahm, and Ari); brilliant dropouts, including Ted Turner, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, and Bill Gates; and the brilliantly evil Bill Belichick, Anthony Pellicano, Stephen Feinberg, and Vladimir Putin.

THE RECESSION FIX-IT GUIDE

In Condé Nast Portfolio’s recession survival guide, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, contributing editor John Cassidy, and senior writer Jesse Eisinger all weigh in on how to fix the recession.
 
•    In “Deficit, Schmeficit," Stiglitz argues that contrary to the way the Clinton administration obsessed over eradicating the deficit, the next president will need to spend, spend, spend. “Beyond short-term difficulties, America’s economy is suffering from a longer-term underinvestment in infrastructure, and we’re losing our innovative edge in the global economy. So what’s this administration’s prescription? Tax rebates! Does it really make sense to encourage consumption in an economy with a zero savings rate? What we really need is more public spending on infrastructure, R&D, and education,” Stiglitz writes.

•    In “The Great Depression Debate,” Cassidy argues that Ben Bernanke, a student of the Great Depression, must find a way to avoid another depression while cracking down on Wall Street. He asserts that 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 control. “The Fed’s actions are likely to provide a respite from, rather than a resolution of, the credit crunch, and they point to the urgent need for more vigorous regulation and oversight of Wall Street,” Cassidy writes.

•    In “It’s (Really) the Economy, Stupid,” Eisinger maintains that the worst Wall Street turmoil in a generation is going to wipe every other issue off the table for the next administration. “The next president will take office during what may well come to be known as the Great Recession, the worst financial crisis of the post-World War II era, worse than the savings-and-loan mess and worse than the stagflation of the 1970s,” Eisinger writes. “It’s not just a Wall Street problem, nor does it encompass only housing (which would be bad enough). This is a lending bubble, abetted by people who borrowed against their homes, racked up credit-card debt, and loaded up with possessions.”

Also in the May issue:

“The Pentagon’s $1 Trillion Problem.” Contributing editor Scot Paltrow reports that two decades after the Pentagon was spanked for its infamous $640 toilet seats, the military budget is still a mess and the Defense Department still has no idea where a large percentage of its money goes. Paltrow reports that reformers have repeatedly lost the battle to modernize the military’s financial systems, which has left billions of dollars unaccounted for. “Preoccupied with protecting their turf, the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines continue to maintain separate, increasingly outdated systems that can’t talk to each other, trace disbursements, or detect overbilling by contractors,” Paltrow writes. “According to federal regulators and current and former Pentagon officials, the accounting process is so obsolete and error prone that it’s virtually impossible to tell where much of this money ends up.”

“How Mickey Got His Groove Back.” Contributing editor Karl Taro Greenfeld reports on how the Disney machine found a moneymaker in a character called Hannah Montana but faces a quandary: how to keep making money from its superstar, whose real name is Miley Cyrus, once she grows up. Greenfeld writes that Disney was floundering until it plugged in its tween dream machine, cranking out the bubblegum-pop stars—like Hannah Montana, the cast of High School Musical, and the Jonas Brothers—that make young girls scream and spend, spend, spend. “Lizzie McGuire was our first success,” says the Disney Channel’s president for entertainment, Gary Marsh. “But Hannah Montana makes Lizzie look like a drop of water.”

“The Taming of Merrill Lynch.” Gary Weiss profiles Merrill Lynch C.E.O. John Thain, who survived a power struggle at Goldman Sachs, went on to rescue the New York Stock Exchange, and is now facing his hardest challenge to date. “Thain knows that his first job is not to appease angry shareholders—an almost impossible task, at least for now—but to keep Merrill Lynch from melting down. It is a sign of the times that this is the new benchmark of success,” Weiss writes. “In the past, people had been compensated for their own business, their own P&L,” Thain tells Weiss. “We will move to compensate people first for how well the firm as a whole does”—an approach much like that of Goldman Sachs. Weiss argues that a triumph for Thain at Merrill could earn him a place in the history books and a top spot in a potential McCain administration.

“Mr. Personalities.” Washington editor Matthew Cooper suggests that while John McCain’s heroism is not in question, his beliefs are. “The real challenge for a voter trying to understand McCain is figuring out which positions he’d keep and which he’d jettison,” Cooper writes. “That’s no easy task when someone does a pirouette on something as basic as tax rates.”

“The Escort Economy.” Contributing editor Duff McDonald calculates just how big the high-end call-girl business really is. McDonald writes that while former New York governor Eliot Spitzer will hereafter be known as Client 9, he is by no means the only such client. After consulting with economists and academics, Condé Nast Portfolio values the average escort experience at about $1,364 and the total U.S. escort economy at more than $109.6 million.

This month on Portfolio.com
The May issue of the magazine, plus additional content, including Brilliant Brackets, an interactive feature that allows users to vote for the most brilliant person from a list of 32. The winner will be announced online on April 21. Also online is the video Rebels, Upstarts, and Game Changers, in which editor in chief Joanne Lipman introduces the Brilliant Issue and takes a look at the people who are changing the way we do business, their work, and whom they turn to for inspiration.

 
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