Bill Clinton

"doesn’t know the difference. •Seek balance through harmonizing the different aspects of life: physical, spiritual, emotional, sexual. •The physical world is illusion but deal with it as if it were real. At every moment in all societies contradictions are developing and these inevitably lead to discontinuities. In his book “Beyond the Mexique Bay,” Aldous Huxley wrote, “Life is a series of routines punctuated by orgies.” It is and it should be, and neither Huxley nor I mean it in the purely conventional sense. •The Roman stoic philosopher Seneca said a lot of useful things. Here are a few: “Happiness is balance; to teach is also to learn; knowing is better than remembering; we are born unequal, we die equal; to govern is to serve, not to rule.” •Be passionate but avoid zealotry. •Be politically correct. Be a Bubba. Use Bill Clinton as a role model. Wear sackcloth and enjoy pain. Lead an opulent lifestyle. •Own a house. Enjoy hotel rooms. •Travel to extremes. Consider each resting place a sanctuary and a home. •Strive for high levels of awareness. Enjoy brain moments. •Be responsible but remember that the ultimate freedom is the utter absence of obligation. •Be highly principled, but be flexible and above all fair. •Be optimistic, or be pessimistic but above all be realistic."

"Nathan Gardels is now also one of the veterans of the World Economic Forum in Davos. In 1985, he founded the periodical New Perspectives Quarterly, which has been available since 1999 at www.digitalnpq.org and is allegedly read by 35 million people in fifteen languages. This is also the principle that Berggruen follows with his institute: Former heads of state, ministers, and diplomats comment on current world events. Almost forgotten figures like the former head of the UN arms control commission Hans Blix have emerged from obscurity. In New Perspectives Quarterly, the politician, who is now almost 90 years old, explains the similarities between North Korea and Iran. Gardels' "Club of Wise Old Men" aims to provide a spectrum of opinions on conflict topics, just like the Club of Rome. Thus, the former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who chaired the influential private US think tank Council on Foreign Relations from 1977 to 1981, at the age of 90, is just as wise and cosmopolitan as Helmut Schmidt, Abolhassam Banisadr, the first elected president of Iran, comments for New Perspectives Quarterly on the Hollywood film Argo, and Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, explains why Arab democracy cannot be of American influence. Alongside the old guard, Nathan Gardels also allows writers such as Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, w"

"Iceland has gone some way to being rehabilitated in the global economy, aided hugely by a resurgent tourist economy. I recall Bill Clinton telling me in May 2014 how impressed he was with Iceland and how the country was a shining example of how to beat a crisis. It’s a common misconception that Iceland is a miracle story of sorts. But the fact is that the ‘miracle’ is questionable, to say the least. The miracle is basically due to the fact that Iceland is so small in the global financial system. The country got away with ringfencing domestic interests from foreign creditors in a defensive move and then strong-arming them through very punitive capital controls over a lengthy negotiation period. Iceland was small enough to go bust and play hardball internationally in the aftermath without any serious long-term consequnces. It would be hard to see other bigger nations pull something like this off in a similiar situation."