Postcards

Power Point: Strive for freedom to fail

"Only if we have the freedom to fail will we have the freedom to succeed."

- U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson at the Fortune 500 Forum this afternoon. As Paulson opened Fortune's confab in Washington D.C. today, he noted that the global financial system must be fixed so that any failure of a single component in the system--such as, we might presume, AIG (AIG) or Lehman Brothers (LEHMQ)--doesn't threaten to bring down the MORE

Lehman Brothers' presidential connections

Now that the government has agreed to rescue Citigroup (C), investors are pondering again a question that never seems to die: Wasn't it a mistake to let Lehman Brothers fail? Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was asked this very question in a Q&A that ran in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, and he replied, "We didn't have an option." He said that Lehman had neither a buyer, as Bear Stearns did in MORE

Citigroup's Pandit gets a lifeline too

The upshot of the government's bailout of Citigroup (C): millions of calmed investors, 350,000 relieved employees, and one CEO who is hanging on to his job at least for a while.

Vikram Pandit's apparent security at the helm of Citi may be a good thing. For all his faults - his failure to get a timely grip on the company's toxic assets, his unconvincing arguments last week that Citi is adequately MORE

Power Point: Beware errors of perception

"This meltdown is not just a financial event, but also a cultural one. It's a big, whopping reminder that the human mind is continually trying to perceive things that aren't true, and not perceiving them takes enormous effort."

-- David Brooks, in his op-ed column, "The Behavioral Revolution," in today's New York Times. On the Dow's second-best day ever, marking an 889-point gain, we need to keep in mind what pitched MORE

Buffett and beyond: Most Powerful Women on video

Here on Postcards, you'll find a trove of video segments from last week's Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit. Click here to watch a riveting take on the fall of Lehman Brothers by Barbara Byrne, a vice chairman who spent 28 years at the now-bankrupt firm. Today, since Barclays bought Lehman's North American core, Byrne is a vice chairman at Barclays Capital (BCS).

We also just posted the first of several highlights MORE

Gates, Buffett and Powerful Women

What a wrapup this morning at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. I interviewed Melinda Gates -- with Warren Buffett watching from the front row. Buffett was flanked by his daughter, Susie, and his daughter-in-law, Jennifer, both of whom are powerful philanthropists in their own right.

It was fascinating to have Melinda Gates talk about her heady missions -- find an AIDS vaccine, eradicate malaria, reform U.S. education, bring a Green Revolution to Africa MORE

Power Point: Don't be naive about press

"You can't be naive about the press. I had a lot of positive exposure but didn't recognize the opportunity for significant negative exposure. Exposure becomes celebrity, and you get a persona."

-- Erin Callan, former Lehman Brothers (LEH) CFO and now head of global hedge fund business at Credit Suisse (CS), in Katie Benner's exclusive Q&A with Callan in the current issue of Fortune. In her first interview since leaving Lehman MORE

Most Powerful Women: The list about the list!

We've spent the last three months slicing and dicing the accomplishments and career histories of the most powerful women in business -- far too many facts and figures to fit into our Most Powerful Women package in the magazine. Here are 10 intriguing facts that we couldn't find space for in print:

Youngest woman to ever appear on the list: Marissa Mayer, VP of Search and User Experience at Google (GOOG). MORE

Fortune's 2008 Most Powerful Women are...

Coming on Monday...more turmoil in the markets? Let's hope not! Here's one thing you can bet on: Fortune's 2008 Most Powerful Women in Business list.

That's right, we just sent it to the printer, and you should see it online Monday morning. You'll see surprises. I can't give too much away (the women who made the list are being called this afternoon with the news that they made Fortune's rankings). But I MORE

Power Point: Embrace the imperfect capital market

"I think we've got fabulous capital markets in this country, and they get screwed up often enough to make them even more fabulous. I mean, you don't want a capital market that functions perfectly if you're in my business. "

--Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BERK) and billionaire investor, to Fortune's Nicholas Varchaver in his cover story, "What Warren Thinks..." On Tuesday Goldman Sachs (GS) announced that it will receive MORE