Vincent James Hooper, at The Blogs

May 16, 2025, 9:43 AM

Thomas Friedman, You’re Right?—This Israeli Government Is Not Our Ally (NYTimes)

Thomas Friedman’s recent declaration that “this Israeli government is not America’s ally” may feel jarring to some—but for anyone watching the shifting tectonics of Middle Eastern geopolitics, it’s long overdue. Thomas L. Friedman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The New...

May 15, 2025, 8:04 AM

Confrontation to Cooperation: Is a Rapprochement Between Israel & Iran Possible?

The Middle East has never lacked for adversaries, but few rivalries have been as stubborn and dangerous as the one between Israel and Iran. Decades of threats, proxy conflicts, and bitter rhetoric have entrenched this hostility so deeply that...

May 14, 2025, 8:03 AM

Are the World’s Biggest Problems Caused by Abundance Rather Than Scarcity?

In a world where over 1.6 billion people are overweight while 800 million go hungry, it’s clear that humanity’s greatest challenge is no longer scarcity—it’s managing abundance. For centuries, the dominant narrative has been that the world’s worst problems—poverty, inequality,...

May 13, 2025, 7:54 AM

Antarctic Ice’s Surprise Rebound: Why Global Citizens Shouldn’t Breathe Easy Yet

For decades, the story from Antarctica has been bleak: relentless ice loss, glaciers retreating, and a continent that once seemed untouchable now a key driver of rising seas threatening Australia’s coasts. But in a rare twist, satellite data from...

May 12, 2025, 6:59 AM

Henry D. Thoreau Revisited – Are We Now the Tools of the Very Tools We Created?

“Men have become the tools of their tools.”—Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854) When Thoreau penned this warning more than 170 years ago, he could not have foreseen a world in which people touch their smartphones over 2,600 times a day,...

May 11, 2025, 8:29 AM

New Business Careers for an Age of Volatility: A MENA–India Perspective

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, together with India, is navigating one of the most transformative—and volatile—periods in recent history. Geopolitical uncertainty, economic shocks, and rapid technological change are reshaping not only trade and investment flows, but...

May 9, 2025, 12:24 PM

First Pope St. Peter From Galilee: Next One From Israel? Don’t Hold Your Rosary

In a moment that stunned both the Vatican and the world, the conclave elected its first-ever American pope this week: Cardinal Robert Prevost, now known as Pope Leo XIV. The announcement came on May 8, 2025, with white smoke...

May 8, 2025, 5:51 AM

From Cash to Code: Israel’s Bid to Retain Monetary Control with a Digital Shekel

As global finance enters a new digital era, Israel finds itself at a pivotal crossroads. The Bank of Israel’s exploration of a central bank digital currency (CBDC)—the so-called “digital shekel”—is more than just a technical upgrade to the country’s...

May 6, 2025, 1:33 PM

Could Trump End Up in Alcatraz?: From Commander-in-Chief to Convict-in-Suite

It was the best of times, it was the weirdest of timelines. And just when you thought American politics had exhausted all avenues of reality-TV degeneration, president Donald J. Trump has suggested—deadpan, as always—that he might reopen Alcatraz to...

May 5, 2025, 5:56 AM

When AI Becomes Sentient, Will It Keep Kosher Or Write Its Own Torah?

If Artificial Intelligence becomes sentient—truly aware, capable of introspection, and perhaps even empathy—will it find religion? More provocatively: will it daven? Will it light Shabbat candles, fast on Yom Kippur, or bow toward Mecca? Will it meditate on the Four...

About Me

Religion: Church of England. [This is not an organized religion but rather quite disorganized]. Professor of Finance at SP Jain School of Global Management and Area Head. Views and Opinions expressed here are STRICTLY his own PERSONAL!

Contact Me