SiliconBeat

It’s a diplomat’s job to reach for the impossible.

Thus is should come as no surprise that Japan’s ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki should dream the impossible dream.

He spoke at Stanford University this week about the importance of incorporating strong environmental measures in the world’s economic recovery from the tough recession. He also made a pitch for Japan’s bullet train technology in a country now looking to expand its rail transportation service.

Fujisaki, who has been posted in Paris, London and Geneva, became dreamy as he recalled the year he studied at Stanford University. 

In addition to the “precious” friendships he developed in Palo Alto, the diplomat also fell in love with one of the area’s great wonders — its weather.

“It’s beautiful,” he said. “I wish the capital of the United States was here.”

He surely is not alone in his dreams, especially as the sweltering Washington D.C. summer approaches. 

Moody’s, the financial ratings firm who’s boss, Raymond McDaniel, testified before Congress earlier this month, along with the chiefs of the two other major ratings firms, about their agencies’ lousy performance in assessing the risks of mortgage-backed securities, named Stanford finance professor Darrell Duffie to its board. (That’s him in the photo, which we found on the professor’s home page.)

Among the documents uncovered by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform was a board presentation delivered by McDaniel to Moody’s directors in October 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

Stanford President John Hennessy, who sits on the board of directors at both Google and Cisco Systems, added his voice to the rising chorus calling for resolution sooner rather than later to the credit crisis enveloping the U.S. economy, in an interview with Bloomberg News. Read the rest of this entry »