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Politics and Policy

How Jimmy Carter Lost His Job and Found His Mission: A Personal Remembrance

Drawing on a decades-long relationship with Carter, Yale SOM leadership expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld reflects on the vast achievements and sometimes bewildering contradictions in his post-presidency.

Jimmy Carter in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
  • Trump Is Already Rattling the Stock Market

    Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, co-author Steven Tian, and investor and analyst Whitney Tilson write that the pattern is familiar from Trump’s term in office, when his remarks frequently swayed markets—usually for the worse.

    Donald Trump on a TV at the New York Stock Exchange
  • How Leaders Finally Walk Away

    In analyzing President Joseph Biden’s decision not to run for reelection, Yale leadership expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld sees the underlying quest for heroic mission and stature that drives many epoch-shaping leaders—and often makes succession a tricky affair.

    President Joe Biden
  • Why Many Business Leaders Are Worried about Trump’s VP Pick

    Prof. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and two Yale SOM colleagues write that the selection of J. D. Vance as vice presidential nominee reflects Trump’s worst anti-business instincts.

    Images of J. D. Vance on video screens at the Republican National Convention
  • Biden Should Go on Offense—Without Being Offensive

    Yale leadership expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his co-author Steven Tian argue that President Joseph Biden has a strong record of economic accomplishment, and he should tout that at the first presidential debate rather than rely on populist attacks on big business.

    Empty lectern
  • Using Operations Research to Improve the Refugee Resettlement Process

    In a new study, Yale SOM’s Vahideh Manshadi and Soonbong Lee and their co-authors propose an algorithm that can yield better employment outcomes for refugees while also reducing caseloads of service providers.

    An Afghani couple in Charlestown, Massachusetts, where they settled in 2022 after the fall of Kabul. 
  • The Coming MAGA Assault on Capitalism

    Yale SOM’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld writes that former president Trump and his followers have made no secret of their hostility to business or their plans to intervene in markets.

    People holding "Making America Great Again" signs at a Trump rally
  • Use Russia’s Frozen Assets to Rebuild Ukraine

    Yale SOM’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Ambassadors John E. Herbst and William B. Taylor argue that $300 billion of frozen Russian assets in Western banks should be transferred to Ukraine to help reconstruct its devastated infrastructure.

    Emergency services workers at the site of a drone attack in February in Odesa, Ukraine. 
  • SEC Chair Gary Gensler on the Future of Systemic Risk in Financial Markets

    The SEC chair talked with Yale SOM’s Andrew Metrick about lessons in resilience following the Global Financial Crisis and a fast-approaching future where AI and quantum computing will deliver transformative, potentially destabilizing, impacts on the financial system.

    Gary Gensler testifying at a congressional hearing
  • Speaker Mike Johnson’s ‘Profiles in Courage’ Moment

    Yale SOM leadership expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and co-author Steven Tian write that the House Speaker displayed rare courage in learning on the job and defying extremists in his own party—and draw historical parallels to an ideological conversion that changed the course of the Cold War.

    House Speaker Mike Johnson speaking to the press, in a wide image from behind
  • Better Sanctions Can Weaken Russia

    Yale SOM’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who has helped lead the movement to isolate Russia, and co-author Steven Tian write that the current sanctions regime is spottily enforced and ignores key commodities exports. They suggest three steps policymakers should take to give economic sanctions real bite.

    An aerial view of a stack of timber