Author: Barry D. Wood

Barry D. Wood is a writer, teacher and journalist in Washington, DC. His focus is the global economy and financial markets. He has reported from 60 countries and specializes in US China relations, Eastern Europe and Southern Africa. His 2017 book is Exploring New Europe, A Bicycle Journey.
American History

The Pursuit of Excellence: Grant Wood and William Shirer, From Cedar Rapids to the World

The Daily Friend October 4, 2026 One hundred years ago, in the summer of 1926, Bill Shirer and Grant Wood sat on the terrace of the Deux Magots café in Paris and sipped white wine. Aspiring journalist Shirer was 22, painter Wood 35. Both came from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a town of little consequence in the heart of the Midwest corn belt. Wood had borrowed … Continue reading The Pursuit of Excellence: Grant Wood and William Shirer, From Cedar Rapids to the World

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global economy

Trump’s G20: Back to Basics

by Barry D. Wood As a crisis response entity, the Group of 20 was superb. In 2009 at the nadir of the global financial crisis, leaders from lands accounting for 85% of global output agreed to flood their stumbling economies with cash—demonstrating to a benumbed public that competent leadership was in charge, that confidence would be restored—and most importantly–there would not be a worldwide depression. … Continue reading Trump’s G20: Back to Basics

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Global Affairs

Franz Kafka Is Alive in Hong Kong and Washington

Franz Kafka lives on in Hong Kong and Washington OPINIONS  BARRY D. WOOD  SEP 6, 2026   – LISTEN TO THIS In Franz Kafka’s 1925 novel, The Trial, Prague bank clerk Joseph K is arrested but not told why. He was informed neither of the nature of the purported crime nor the names of the accusers. He is left to speculate about what was going on. On May … Continue reading Franz Kafka Is Alive in Hong Kong and Washington

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Global Affairs

We Need to Reprise a Golden Age of Foreign Correspondence

August 23, 2026. The Daily Friend.co.za The need to reprise a golden age of foreign reporting OPINIONS  BARRY D. WOOD  AUG 23, 2026   – LISTEN TO THIS After the First World War and disastrous 1919 Paris peace accord, four young American would-be journalists rolled up on European shores. Three were Midwesterners – Vincent Sheean from rural Illinois, John Gunther from Chicago, and William Shirer from Iowa. … Continue reading We Need to Reprise a Golden Age of Foreign Correspondence

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economic transformation

Creative Destruction…America’s Losers and Winners

American Dispatch The Daily Friend August 9, 2026 Creative Destruction: America’s Losers and Winners OPINIONS  BARRY D. WOOD  AUG 9, 2026   – LISTEN TO THIS Joseph Schumpeter in 1942 coined the term creative destruction where innovation renders old economic models obsolete.  Technology marches on. Embrace the new or die. Companies that are slow or fail to adapt die slowly or suddenly. Textiles are an example. In early … Continue reading Creative Destruction…America’s Losers and Winners

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