“I have a chronic, incurable trade deficit with my barber,” prominent Washington Post columnist George Will told HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher last week. “Once a month … I buy a haircut from her; she buys nothing from me. She has a trade deficit with Iowa because she buys corn products and pork. And no Iowan ever comes to Washington to get a haircut. Amazingly, it works — somehow!” Nothing captures US President Donald Trump’s approach to trade better than Will’s quip, … [Read more...]
Articles
Frank blogs regularly for the Huffington Post and writes occasional columns and articles for publications such as the International Business Times and The Economic Times of India.
Frank writes on a wide variety of topics that are critical to shaping the future of America and the American dream and to making the United States and the world a better place. These include: Business; education; poverty and inequality; politics and public policy; immigration; manufacturing; innovation; leadership; citizenship; and social commentary.
Frank’s most recent blogs are highlighted on this page. To read other blogs or articles by Frank, click on the categories or publications links on the left.
The Need for More Responsive and Responsible Higher Education
As we wrote in our blog preceding this one, since returning to office on January 20, Donald Trump and his administration have launched an unprecedented and unwarranted attack on higher education that will do considerable damage to it. That’s not just our opinion. It’s also the opinion of hundreds of college leaders who signed a public statement titled “A Call for Constructive Engagement,” issued by the American Association of Colleges and … [Read more...]
Higher Education, Lower Expectations
Since returning to office on January 20, Donald Trump and his administration have launched an unprecedented and unwarranted attack on higher education that will do considerable damage. Unfortunately, in this century, the higher education establishment has done considerable damage to itself. Public Opinion and Views on Higher Education At one time, higher education was held in uniformly high regard. Today, for a variety of reasons, this is no longer the case. The expectations … [Read more...]
Indian Americans fret over Big Beautiful law
On July 4, as Americans marked the 249th anniversary of the nation’s founding, President Donald Trump signed into law his signature legislative achievement: The “One Big Beautiful Bill”. Spanning nearly 900 pages, the legislation overhauls the US tax code, boosts spending on defense, border security, and infrastructure, and introduces a wide array of industry-specific incentives and subsidies. In addition, the law slashes funding for some entitlement programmes, most notably … [Read more...]
Trust-Busting and the News Media
During his tenure as President at the beginning of the twentieth century, Theodore Roosevelt became known for “trust-busting.” That was because of the actions he took to break up monopolies and large corporations which he felt were doing harm to the American people. In this twenty first century, trust-busting has taken on a new meaning. It is a description of the American people’s loss of faith and confidence in the news media. The question becomes what has caused this trust-busting. … [Read more...]
Trump vs Musk: Perils of confronting POTUS
This public capitulation of the world’s richest man before the world’s most powerful individual came just a week after their alliance collapsed in a chaotic and very public fashion. During Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tenure heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for President of the United States (POTUS) Donald Trump, their relationship was characterised by some as a bromance. Indeed, when Musk left DOGE on May 30, President Trump gave him a gold key to the White House. The … [Read more...]
The Need For An American Renewal Plan
In 2020, as Donald Trump neared the end of his first term in office, we thought that there would never be a worse president than Trump and that he would never be re-elected. We were wrong on both counts. Trump was re-elected. And in the first 100 days of his second term in 2025, he has proven to be far worse than he was in his first term. America in Wartime During his first term, even as he failed to provide leadership in the fight against … [Read more...]
America will have a price to pay for targeting campuses
Under Trump's immigration policies, Indian students face detention and deportation, threatening US education's legacy and economic contributions. For more than a century, the US has drawn some of India’s brightest minds in pursuit of world-class education. From BR Ambedkar, who went on to draft India’s Constitution, to business titans like Mukesh Ambani and Azim Premji, American universities have helped shape generations of Indian thinkers, builders, and changemakers. Today, however, … [Read more...]
Trump’s First 100 Days: “Tarrifying!”
“Tarrifying!” That is our invented one-word assessment of Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office as president for a second term. Those days have been “tarrifying” not just in terms of trade, but in actions taken across the board by the Trump administration. The nature of Trump’s performance was not unexpected. In fact, this is what Trump campaigned on, and he is doing what he said he would do. Trump himself confirmed the accuracy of this perspective during … [Read more...]
Silencing the Voices of America
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear. — Harry S. Truman President Truman’s somber warning issued in 1950 is prescient and chilling in 2025. (For information on the context for Truman’s comment, click here). That’s due to the fact that … [Read more...]