So nice to be with you fellow Chatauquans. Team Georgescu - led by my wife and life's partner, Barbara - just love it here. Barbara has been coming to Chautauqua for over 20 years. And I - well, when I stopped my obsessive work schedule a few years back, I too, surrendered happily, to the magic of Chautauqua.

So, I am immensely grateful to Barbara, for opening my eyes - to yet another extraordinary experience in our lives, so I entered Exeter. I did OK - I passed courses on my own, by the end of the first year. But first, I had to jump over a major hurdle. The first week, I got 7 zeros in my Algebra II daily quizzes. The teacher finally got me aside and we discussed that while I know how to add, subtract and multiply - I didn't know how to divide. Fortunately, the Exeter experience also had its lighter moments. One of my classmates was Peter Benchley, the great-grandson of Robert Benchley, one of America's great treasures, as a writer and humorist. This is what Peter told us about his brilliant ancestor.

His father had sent Robert to school, Harvard, in fact. He spent the next 6 years there. He would have stayed longer if they had allowed him to. He loved being a student. Only problem was he almost never went to class. However, come exam time, his sheer intellect allowed him to rise to the occasion. He graduated, and, looking to continue his love affair with "student life" he went on to study law at Harvard. In one of his exams there, students where asked to analyze a particular case they had been studying during the semester. The case concerned the U.S. government and group of Peruvian fishermen. Students were asked to provide an analysis based on the point of view of the U.S. government, the Peruvian fishermen, or the judge in the case. Robert sat still for a minute, staring curiously at the judicious challenge that faced him on paper. His fellow classmates began scribbling away. He thought carefully about which point of view would most captivate his imagination—and his reader. Finally, he picked up his pencil and began writing about the case, from the point of view—of the fish.

Rest assured, I am not going to be talking well, about the magical critters populating the waters of Lake Chautauqua. My perspective, on the challenges facing our economy, our global trade, and our future prosperity and well-being, will be decidedly a businessman's perspective. For me, the fundamental issue facing business today, is simply this: can business, big or small, global or local - be good? Can business continue to add to the quality of our lives, in both economic terms, and in a moral sense? Can business conduct itself decently? And responsibly, as a welcomed and respected member of our communities here and around the world?

I will argue that business can and will do that. I am indeed optimistic. In fact, business must do that for our nation not only to thrive, but to survive in the years, and decades ahead.

But, where are we today? The headlines: Enron, Global Crossing, Qwest, Andersen, Sotheby's, WorldCom, Martha, and more, sadly more. Is business bad? In part, yes.

Long before Enron, when I was part of Young & Rubicam, I came face to face with the ugly side of business. During my years at Y&R, we did business with Disney, working for them on movies, on various theme park assignments, and on other projects. The company is filled with thousands of wonderful people, dedicated, hard-working, smart. I always respected the management duo of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells. They ran the company during the early years of my involvement. In particular, I got to know Wells, and I deeply admired his business skills, as well as his fairness and integrity. In the beginning, it was a great company to have as a client.

However, in April 1994, the 62-year-old Wells died in a helicopter crash on a skiing trip. After that, the relationship between Y&R and Disney began to change. We soon sensed, that Disney was becoming much more aggressive with its suppliers, driving down prices, demanding concessions, and constantly changing requirements. Evenhanded negotiations were nor more. It seemed that, in the new Disney worldview, someone had to win every deal, and someone had to lose. And Disney was determined, always to win, by any means. Even after agreeing to certain conditions in a deal, Disney seemed unwilling to abide by them. It got so bad, that in almost every case, they would try to weasel out of their obligations - written or oral - about financial payments, scope of projects, and so on. It became intolerable.

Finally, I sent word to all our subsidiaries, around the world, that we'd no longer do business with Disney. It's the only large company I've ever had to take such a step with. In a sense, it was both a practical and a value-based decision. We could have continued to put up with the abuse in order to make some money. But, if we had, I would have been a partner in that abuse - allowing our people to suffer under Disney's tactics.