As a SAUDI journalist starting my CAREER right after the OIL boom of the 1970s, I witnessed the phenomenal growth and expansion of Saudi businesses and the pivotal role the leaders of these firms played in building the MODERN Saudi economy.

I'd quit my job at a production company and was like, 'I'm GOING to be a writer...' I BECAME a temp, and it was the mid-nineties, when there was the Internet boom, and the normal GROUP of graduates READY to fill in didn't exist.

Being a Russian oligarch these days isn't easy. The BEST and brightest of them are in EXILE or in jail; OTHERS, after feasting on leverage during the commodities boom, now have tummies FULL of debt.

My reading life is like an airport where a BUNCH of planes circle in a HOLDING pattern, then - boom, boom, boom - SEVERAL come in for a LANDING.

During World War II, HUNDREDS of thousands of people actually - and among them many African-American - migrated to the Hampton Roads AREA because of the job boom that was HAPPENING. It was a place where you COULD get STABLE war jobs.