James Flanigan appeared at the Milken Institute on March 24, 2009, to speak about why Southern California remains one of the most economically vital and innovative regions in the country. View a webcast replay of the event.

By James Flanigan
National Catholic Reporter
February 17, 2009

In the recent film “Doubt,” set in 1964, Fr. Brendan Flynn, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, pastor of a parish in the Bronx, wants to bring the church closer to the people. He tells Sr. Aloysius Beauvier, principal of the parish elementary school, that “we [the clergy and nuns] are really just like them,” meaning the parishioners.

But Sr. Aloysius, played by Meryl Streep, protests vehemently, “We are not like them. We are different, and we must be different. These working-class people depend on us” to be different, to be above and apart from them, to guide them and to care for their children whom they have entrusted to us.

Both were right. (more…)

By James Srodes
The Washington Times
March 1, 2009

Those who have read financial journalist James Flanigan over his 40-year career recognize his hallmark. It is an intense curiosity not just about what is happening, but why it happens that way, and what is likely to occur next.

As the title of “Smile, Southern California, You’re the Center of the Universe” suggests, Mr. Flanigan would have us believe that Southern California is what America is likely to become — perhaps even must become — as it evolves into a more interdependent yet still pre-eminent position in the global marketplace. This is not local boosterism gone wild. Mr. Flanigan’s career as a financial journalist and columnist for Forbes, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times has taken him into executive suites all over the world.

A first reaction might be that this is a book that has been overtaken by events. Between the time the author did his interviews and research and Stanford University got around to printing the book, California has been stricken by the same economic catastrophe that has swamped the world and its most visible giants in the high-tech, entertainment and finance sectors have been badly wounded. At the moment, the state itself now has the lowest credit rating among the 50 states because its governor and legislature are deadlocked in a struggle over impending budget deficits. If Standard and Poor’s ranks California no better than Louisiana as a credit prospect, then why bother with the place at all? (more…)