Today begins the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit–our annual gathering of the world’s most influential women in business, government, philanthropy and the arts. Oh, and a few powerful men are here in sunny southern California with us too. Among them: Warren Buffett (BRKB) will be interviewed by my colleague, Fortune senior editor at large Carol Loomis, tomorrow. Tonight, Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein will present the Fortune-Goldman Sachs Global Women Leaders Award to two remarkable rising-star African women. In just a few hours, before our opening dinner, Larry Summers will be interviewed by my colleague, Fortune Washington Editor Nina Easton.

Really big guys and 400 powerful women. My boss, Fortunemanaging editor Andy Serwer, will interview Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz on stage tomorrow.

We have a record turnout and the lowest cancellation rate ever, in 11 years of convening the Summit (a positive sign for the recovery, you think?) We also have a record number of “list” women–taht is, leaders who made the 2009 MPWomen rankings. Besides Bartz, who is No. 8 on the just-released list, the Summit participants include: ADM (ADM) CEO Pat Woertz, Avon (AVP) CEO Andrea Jung, DuPont (DD) CEO Ellen Kullman, Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg, bank-industry analyst Meredith Whitney, Xerox (XRX) chairman Anne Mulcahy and new CEO Ursula Burns. The two Xerox women are sitting down with Time Inc. (TWX) CEO Ann Moore for their first interview together since the historic handoff a couple of months ago: The Xerox succession represents the first time ever that a female Fortune 500 CEO ceded the position to another woman.

The top women at Google (GOOG), IBM (IBM), Disney (DIS), Wal-Mart (WMT), Exxon Mobil (XOM), and American Express (AXP) are here as well. Tomorrow CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo will interview FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair. Also on the program: Condoleezza Rice, Arianna Huffington, Tina Brown, Campbell Brown, and former eBay CEO (EBAY) Meg Whitman. She’s running for Governor of California, as you probably know, and I’m interviewing her on Wednesday morning.

I could go on and on, but I have to run and host this three-day show. Watch Postcards all week for updates and insights from the leaders and newsmakers gathered here. — Patricia Sellers

by Walter E. Sellers

My dad, who is now 88, wrote this a couple of days after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Out of a clear, blue sky
clouds flouted here and there
Two beautiful towers stood tall
Facing the Statue of Liberty looking out to where.

To the world of immigrants
whom we welcomed for years
by the millions, they entered with hearts of hope,
and many with joy and tears.

Is it possible the sight we see
first, one plane and then another
on a day of beauty and peace
crashing into the land of the free.

With the force and fury of a living hell,
screams of pain and terror fill the air,
drowned out by the cacophony of fire, explosions,
so many wails of agony, more than the heart could bear.

Finally, there is the horrible sight,
the buildings are collapsing,
a man and woman jump from a top floor,
plunging to earth, hands held tight.

Thousands in the buildings,
with police and fireman below,
suffer the hell of roaring flames and crashing steel,
all fighting for life, helping each other but many never to know.

To know with their sacrifice, they have united our country,
like never in the past,
joining our hearts and souls to go forward,
to lift our flag high, not at half mast.

Are we wrong in our welcome to all who arrive,
regardless of race or creed?
We always believed so
and still kept our freedom alive.

Now, we wonder why. We pray to God above
that our country be blessed, terror of the world removed,
peace restored to the world,
and the country we love.

God Bless America and the world.

The Most Powerful Women in Business list is coming out this week. On Thursday you’ll find out who rose, who fell, and who newly arrived on Fortune’s annual rankings of 50 U.S. women leaders and 50 bosses of businesses abroad.

No sooner did we send the package to press on Friday than one of the list regulars, Kraft Foods (KFT) CEO Irene Rosenfeld lobbed a $16.7 billion bid to acquire Cadbury (CBY). Kraft is already the largest food company in North America. If she succeeds with this deal, Kraft would become a $50 billion-a-year global giant.

Rosenfeld was No. 2 on last year’s MPWomen list, just a notch behind PepsiCo (PEP) CEO Indra Nooyi, who has led our rankings since 2006. I went up to PepsiCo headquarters last week to interview Nooyi. And though I’ve spent my 25-year career at Fortune closely watching this ever-expanding corporation (and have known the three CEOs before her), I’m struck that Nooyi has a global view unmatched by her American-born predecessors.

At last year’s Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, Nooyi told Time Inc. (TWX) CEO Ann Moore, in an on-stage interview, that she intends to visit 80 countries in her first five years as chief executive. Three years into the job, Nooyi is well on her way. She visited China and Russia this past summer.

This year’s Most Powerful Women issue–and web coverage–will include parts of my interview with Nooyi. But right now I’ll give you a sneak peak of a few things that the PepsiCo boss said:

On China: “The Chinese are very comfortable about themselves and China’s place in the world scene. More so now than I’ve ever seen. They think their government is doing the right thing—that the way the government put the stimulus into shovel-ready projects is the right way to go.”

On Russia: “Whether it comes to Mr. Putin or Mr. Medvedev, the Russians are very, very confident that they’re taking them in the right direction. I left Russia feeling good about Russia. There is problem with Russia, and it’s demographics. They have a population that’s declining by half a million people every year.”

On career paths: “To me, to say ‘What’s the next job?’ is the most terrible thing you can do. If you’re so focused on the next job, you forget how to do your existing job.”

On power: “It’s a terrible word, first of all. You have sway over many people. Power is dangerous in the hands of someone who doesn’t understand the responsibility.”

I told Nooyi that my favorite definition is one that Oprah Winfrey told me years ago: “Power is the ability to impact with purpose.”

“That’s a great one. A great one,” Nooyi replied. “Impact with purpose—if people interpreted power as just that, then power is an okay work.”

Watch Postcards this week and next for lots more MPWomen news. Also, if you can, catch me co-hosting Squawk Box on CNBC this Thursday 8-9 a.m. EST. Our guests will be Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz, Xerox (XRX) chairman Anne Mulcahy and Meredith Whitney, the much-watched analyst who calls the ups and downs in the banking industry quite powerfully.

It was a power-packed Sunday. Usain Bolt beat his own world record. Y.E. Yang came out of obscurity to trounce Tiger Woods in the PGA Championship. Don Draper returned, tortured as ever. So many juicy Power Points–our quotes of the day–to choose from. So why not kick off a slow summer week with a whole bunch of ‘em, from sports to business to politics… — Patricia Sellers and Jessica Shambora

“You never know in life, this might be my last win as a golfer.” — Y.E. Yang, after beating Tiger Woods. This was the first time ever that Woods had the lead going into the final round of a major, and lost. Yang, from South Korea, seemed humble, relaxed, even zen-like throughout the nail-biting final holes. Yang said afterwards: “Tiger’s good, but he could always have a bad day. Guess this is one of those days.”

“For me, it was all about going and winning, because I knew these guys were ready.” — Usain Bolt, Jamaican track star, after setting a new 100-meter sprint record of 9.58 seconds at the World Track and Field championships yesterday. Instead of aiming to break his own world record, Bolt says he went into the race focused on beating his rivals. Maybe a good business lesson there.

“I keep going different places, and always winding up where I’ve already been.” — Mad Men’s Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm, on last night’s premiere of the riveting AMC show’s third season. (Yes, we love it.) The anti-Usain Bolt, the iconic ’60s ad man is haunted by his past and can’t move past it.

“What you carry on your belt is now your MP3 player, will be your plasma TV, is your social-networking machine, is your Internet terminal, your camera, your personal navigation device.” — Research in Motion (RIMM) co-CEO Jim Balsillie, from Jessi Hempel’s cover story in the current issue of Fortune . RIM is No. 1 on Fortune’s just-released list of 100 Fastest-Growing Companies.

“I’ve been putting sand in my salad; I eat sand.” — Shaquille O’Neal, about taking on Olympic beach volleyball Gold medalists Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh in “Shaq Vs.,” his new primetime reality show in which he tries to beat the world’s greatest athletes at their own games. Shaq, who identifies himself as “Very Quotatious” on his Twitter page, told the New York Times, “I want to thank both these beautiful ladies for accepting this challenge. I hope they don’t mess up their nails too much.” The show premieres tomorrow night on ABC (DIS).

“I encourage you to love your animals — whatever animals you have, whether it’s a dog, a cat, a reptile, if it’s a horse. I encourage you to love that animal dearly and with all your heart.” — Michael Vick, ex-con and Philadelphia Eagles backup quarterback, struggling to make amends for his involvement in running a dog-fighting operation. (Love your reptiles? Paging the PR police!!)

“We are just a small little company that has gone through some challenging times that is trying to find a way to come up with ideas that will connect with an audience.”– Tim Armstrong, the new CEO of AOL, on his efforts to revitalize the struggling web pioneer as it prepares to split from parent TimeWarner (TWX).

“It has become pretty clear that advertising alone is not going to sustain on-line business models. Quality journalism has to be paid for.” — John Ridding, CEO of The Financial Times, in the New York Times, on the paper’s 2001 decision to charge readers for access to its website. Now that other publishers are looking to do the same, Ridding is enjoying the company. “It was pretty lonely out there for while in paid land.”

“Specter got it all wrong that I ever used words ‘death boards.’ Even liberal press never accused me of that. So change ur last Tweet Arlen.” — Chuck Grassley, Republican Senator of Iowa, to Democratic Senator Arlen Specter on Twitter. The two were feuding about health-care reform, specifically end-of-life care.

“One of my colleagues locks the door at the meeting start. Trust me, no one ever arrives late a second time.” — Mattel (MAT) CEO Bob Eckert, in “The Best Advice I Ever Got” in the new issue of Fortune.

Hillary Clinton, who has been under the radar lately, spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations in D.C. this afternoon. I listened in by phone.

She talked tough about Iran. She announced a fall trip to Pakistan. She highlighted “smart power,” defining it as “the intelligent use of all means at our disposal, including our ability to convene and connect.” And she spoke passionately about women: “Until women around the world are accorded their rights–and afforded the opportunities of education, health care, and gainful employment–global progress and prosperity will have its own glass ceiling.”

That quote struck me and made me think about how Clinton is reshaping the Secretary of State role. For one thing, she’s focusing on women around the world more than any other Secretary of State has (even as two recent predecessors, Condi Rice and Madeleine Albright, were women). Clinton created a new post, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, which she mentioned today. She appointed Melanne Verveer, who was her chief of staff in the Clinton White House, to that job. (We know Melanne well: Before she took this post, she headed Vital Voices, a non-profit that’s a partner of ours in the Fortune-U.S. State Department Global Mentoring Partnership.)

Today’s most interesting remarks came during a follow-up Q&A, moderated by CFR president Richard Haass. Secretary Clinton talked about India, where she’s headed tomorrow for a five-day visit (and from there, to Thailand). In India, she’ll meet with Prime Minister Singh–”aiming to broaden and deepen engagement,” she said. This “engagement” is even broader than you might think. Climate change and clean energy are part of it. In India, Clinton said, she’ll be visiting the country’s first LEED-certified building.

As I listened to Clinton today, I thought about how the role of Secretary of State–just like most every other job, including CEO of a company–is broader than it used to be. And doing a job well requires more adaptability and more learning-on-the-fly than ever. Don’t you feel that?

So it goes for Hillary Clinton. She got fired up at the end when she talked about the State Department’s role in helping to shore the global economy: “The economic role of the State Department needs to be strengthened,” she said, adding, “Strategic and economic concerns cannot be divorced.”

Who would have imagined that she’d be doing this job in the Obama Administration? Clinton clearly  is engaged. The Obama Administration is “all hands on deck,” she said today—and doing more than expected is “part of our responsibility now.”

Biz Stone wants your money. That was the message from Twitter’s co-founder this afternoon at the first-ever Cannes Lions Tweet-Up.

The Tweet-Up — a talk by Stone followed by a Twitter-fed Q&A session — took place before a crowd packed to the rafters at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, here on the Cote d’Azur.

Stone, who launched Twitter two years ago with fellow Google (GOOG) alum Evan Williams, said that their aim is to come up with a revenue model this year. So who is going to feed them the money that will make Twitter more than a cultural and geopolitical phenomenon? Companies — which are increasingly using Twitter to communicate with customers and prospects in real time — need to start paying for the unique service that Twitter provides, Stone suggested.

Among Twitter’s most active corporate users: Dell (DELL), JetBlue (JBLU), and Whole Foods (WFMI), which has almost one million followers. Stone and the other folks at Twitter – which now has a whopping 50 employees– are working hard to help companies understand the potential value of Twitter. Initially, Stone admitted, “We focused too much on tweets,” — and made people ask, ”What the hell is a tweet?” Twitter’s pitch to companies has evolved to: ”Here’s everything people are saying about your product.” Companies disagree and engage by tweeting.

Revenue generation would yield more than just a path to survival. “It would send out a signal that we’re building a company of enduring value,” Stone said. That signal, he added, will help attract more developers to create apps that will broaden Twitter’s appeal.

Sounds like Stone has been getting some serious advice on business-building. But further swatting down rumors that he and Williams might sell the company to Google or Facebook, Stone reiterated that Twitter is not for sale.

But he and Williams are open to partnerships. “There’s a sea of companies we’d like to complement and help,” he said. What does Stone say when someone suggests they’re a potential competitor with Twitter? “I say, ‘How ’bout we just be friends?’” – Pattie Sellers

Let’s break from the news — following yesterday’s Postcard on Huffington Post CEO Betsy Morgan getting the boot and Monday’s Postcard about Citigroup (C) chairman Dick Parson’s idea for luring fresh talent to the sick bank giant. (Appeal to “patriotic duty,” he proposes!)

Too many strange doings and way too much going on, frankly, during what is supposed to be a slowdown into summer. (Btw, when will Manhattan get warmer?) Today, I want to step back and tell you about a topic that’s been front and center in every conversation I’ve had these past eight hours: the notion of defining your power broadly, beyond your company’s bottom line.

The theme surfaced at breakfast, when I met with Richard Edelman, the PR ace, and Nancy Turett, the president of Edelman’s Health practice. We talked about the ever-increasing onus on CEOs to be socially responsible — and, as Turett sees it, to recognize their company’s “health footprint” as well as its “environmental footprint” (while delivering a good return to shareholders at the same time). These CEOs have more to do than ever. Aside from the big-pharma chief executives, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo (PEP), Jeff Immelt of General Electric (GE) and A.G. Lafley of Procter & Gamble (PG), who just anointed a successor, are doing pretty well at this, building mighty businesses that simultaneously help make the world healthier. A double bottom line, potentially.

Later this morning, Jackie Kosecoff, who heads UnitedHealth Group’s (UNH) giant Prescription Solutions unit, stopped by to talk about driving down health-care costs. (“Generics” is her watchword.) Kosecoff and I noted a growing number of execs, particularly women, who are thinking broadly about their power and abandoning hotshot careers. Examples: Genentech President Sue Hellmann recently left to be Chancellor at UCSF; P&G President Susan Arnold quit with no clue about what she’ll do next; Linda Dillman, once the IT and later employee-benefits czarina at Wal-Mart (WMT), is leaving the world biggest retailer for places unknown (yes, unknown even to her — and voluntarily).

This “What Color is My Parachute?” revival is difficult for corporate America, obviously. But depending on where these women land, they’ll contribute to the world in other ways, presumably.

Over lunch today with Catherine Smith, the CEO of U.S. Retirement Services at ING (ING), we talked about what it takes to build a satisfying career. Smith started in commercial real estate, oversaw IR and then finance for Aetna, before ING acquired her division. She, like many super-successful women I’ve come to know, fueled her career by expanding her skills rather than just climbing the ladder. In fact, when she was offered a promotion in finance in 2000, she rejected it, choosing a less prestigious job in sales in order to learn about customers. Then she jumped to IT, virgin territory (“my biggest and most challenging and most out-of-normal experience”). She says: “To me, a career is like a quiver with lots of arrows.”

Smith is now using her platform at ING to promote environmental and other causes that were her passion decades before she became powerful. She’s on the advisory board of Outward Bound, whose philosophy happens to be quite relevant to executives today: “Get out of your comfort zone.”

by Patricia Sellers

How do you get top talent to work for a Fortune 500 company that’s one-third owned by the federal government, bound by onerous rules on pay and benefits, and so out of favor with investors that its stock won’t budge above $3.50?

If you’re Citigroup (C) chairman Dick Parsons, who is trying to help embattled CEO Vikram Pandit lure talent to the bank giant’s management and board, you pitch a higher calling. “It’s almost like a patriotic duty,” says Parsons about working at Citi. “Plus it’s damned interesting.”

Parsons, a Citi director since 1996, stepped up to chairman in February — an unexpected career shift for the man who spent most of the past decade as chairman and CEO of Time Warner (TWX). Parsons talked about Citi’s challenges in an interview with Fortune managing editor Andy Serwer Monday morning at “The Economy 2009,” a half-day confab hosted by CNN, Time and Fortune.

As healthier rivals such as JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Goldman Sachs (GS) have received the green light to return TARP bailout funds to the federal government — while Uncle Sam’s ownership stake on Citi is growing larger — the bank’s main problem long-term will likely be “HR,” admitted Parsons. That is, Citi’s ability to lure top talent. “I do worry that we’ll be at a competitive disadvantage,” he said, pointing out that he’s working for no cash, only stock and options. “There are some people in the world,” he said, obviously referring to himself, “who want to do something that is fascinating and interesting and important.”

Maybe he should have added the word “impossible.” Anyone who stayed to the end of “The Economy 2009″ wouldn’t want to go work for Citi — or probably anywhere else in the banking industry. The summit closed with a doom-and-gloom panel that included Yale Professor Robert Shiller, New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini, and bank-industry analyst Meredith Whitney, who helped expose the balance-sheet problems at Citi and other banks two years ago. With CNN anchor Christine Romans leading the discussion, this session could have been titled “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” (No offense to Romans, who isn’t quite blond!)

As each of the three economic oracles vied to be more bearish than the other, they laid out a scenario where home prices will fall another 15-20%, unemployment will rise to 11% by year-end, the recession will last another six to nine months — and banks will pay the brunt of it. “Losses of banks will accelerate,” Roubini predicted, contending that commercial real-estate loans are the industry’s next toxic problem.

Whitney, who declined to talk about her outlook for Citi specifically, nonetheless agreed and suggested that it’s not yet the time to bet on an industry recovery. “Banks are sitting on rotting assets,” she said. “The liquidity crisis is over. But the credit crisis continues.”

“Put yourself in the path of lightning.”

- Valerie Jarrett, President Obama’s longtime friend and senior adviser. This is what Jarrett told young Barack and Michelle early on in their friendship — years before she or even they imagined he might become President. Jarrett’s rule — one of her 21 rules of life — came up tonight as I was talking with Ann Moore, Time Inc.’s CEO, at a reception we hosted for the participants of this year’s Fortune/U.S. State Department Mentoring Partnership. (We have 32 rising-star women from 23 developing countries shadowing American women leaders this month.) Ann, a mentor each year, sat beside Jarrett at last week’s Time 100 dinner, and says that she never did find out from her what those other 20 rules are. Hmm, can anyone tell us?

“The cost of credit remains exceptionally high. We have more work to do, and recovery will take time. But we are starting to see some signs of progress toward financial repair.”

- U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, announcing bank-industry stress-test results Thursday afternoon. Ten of the 19 largest banks in the U.S. must raise a total of $74.6 billion in capital. Leading the list: Bank of America (BAC) with a $33.9 billion shortfall. Wells Fargo (WFC) needs to raise $13.7 billion, and auto finance giant GMAC, $11.5 billion. Citigroup (C), having accepted some $50 billion in government aid already, is being asked to raise another $5 billion. And what companies have solid enough balance sheets that they avoided the capital-improvement onus altogether? Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and American Express (AXP).