Postcards

This week: Heroes fall, leaders flail

This was a week for fallen heroes and flailing leaders.

On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner disappointed with too few details on the new bank bailout.

On Wednesday the bank CEOs got flogged in Washington - one more indignity after schlepping there on the Delta Shuttle or Amtrak's Acela.

President Obama scored with the $789 billion stimulus bill. But it emerged, after plenty of compromise, leaner than most economists had hoped for. Obama's MORE

Meredith Whitney gathers the power

I was with 25 powerful women and one man last evening. We agreed: The worst is yet to come, but if something good comes out of these crises, it might be because we're all questioning our higher calling.

The setting was the Manhattan home of Meredith Whitney, the Oppenheimer bank-industry analyst whose early calls on Citigroup (C) and Bank of America (BAC), among other teetering giants, earned her a Fortune cover MORE

This week: Moves at BofA, Best Buy and beyond

This was a week of transitions. Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton. A little-known Congresswoman named Kirsten Gillibrand, who beat Caroline Kennedy for Hillary's Senate seat and reminded us that power and privilege don't mix well these days.

John Thain's ouster at Bank of America (BAC) also reminded us of that. I met the former Merrill Lynch boss briefly only three times. He seemed like Clark Kent: solid, a bit boring, and cryptic. MORE

The new era of responsibility

I'm just back from five days in Washington, D.C. (yes, I commuted against the crowds this morning) and I'm feeling "the new era of responsibility" that President Barack Obama spoke about in his inaugural address today. This responsibility is power. It's also quite a burden. Are you feeling it too?

On Friday, I had a keen sense of it when I was meeting with Sheila Bair, the chairman of the FDIC. MORE

Power Point: Prevent economic catastrophe

"You have to look at this bill as not a salvation for the economy by any means. It is simply the largest effort by any legislative body on the planet to try to take government action to prevent economic catastrophe, and even that may be insufficient."

-- House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, Democrat of Wisconsin, at a news conference Thursday. House Democrats unveiled a $825 billion stimulus package that calls MORE

Power Point: Spend to grow

"There is a time for budget austerity--this ain't it."

-- Obama economic advisor Jared Bernstein, noting that government "is the only part of GDP pulling out its wallet these days" and therefore the most reliable source of short-term growth. Read "CEO in chief" by my colleague Nina Easton, Fortune's Washington editor, for more about the all-star team of CEOs and thinkers who are helping the President-elect grapple with the financial crisis MORE

A new brand of Presidential poll

by Jessica Shambora

Barack Obama is on his way to the White House, so the polls suggest. But how are we going to feel once he's President of the U.S.? And if--just if--McCain upsets Obama, where will our heads and hearts be then?

Added Value, a brand consultancy that has worked with such companies as Honda (HMC), Kimberly-Clark (KMB), Coca-Cola (KO), Nestle (NSRGF) and Wyeth (WYE), explored the emotional connections between consumers MORE

Random bits of hope

It's hard to be hopeful. Turmoil in the financial markets is spreading geographically and psychologically. The Dow closed down 508 points today. At last week's Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, we heard plenty about stress and sleep deprivation -- starting with Warren Buffett's comments on a clearly exhausted Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. Sallie Krawcheck, who is leaving her high-level post at Citigroup (C), and Barclays Capital (BCS) vice chairman Barbara Byrne 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