POLITICS

There used to be a half-joking, half-cynical saying on Capitol Hill: "reality is negotiable." It stood for the idea that there is no fact that can't be spun out of existence, and no number so absolute that you can't doctor it off the books. That phrase has since...

As with any investment, successful investing in bonds requires following a simple routine or discipline. While experienced bond investors will follow this routine automatically, those who are newer to bonds should follow a checklist before committing themselves in...

Here are just a few of the facts: One study asked middle-class black, white and Asian high school students what was the lowest grade their parents would tolerate their bringing home? Asian students replied A-minus. Blacks said their parents would accept grades lower...

Part of a global equity analyst's job is to deconstruct the financial statements of companies from around the world. This can be a harrowing task, especially when one considers the multitude of differing accounting standards practiced in countries outside the U.S....

TV journalism means never having to be truly sorry. You would think that after last Tuesday's election coverage fiasco, the broadcast networks might show a smidgen of humility. Instead, NBC and MSNBC -- which led the blow-dried lemmings in erroneously awarding Florida...

Karl Marx said it best: "Audacity is 90 percent of the battle." Lenin showed that he had learned this Marxist lesson well when he declared his tiny band "the majority" and seized power in Russia in the name of a non-existent proletariat. It is the year 2000 in the...

Never ask your spouse or partner to make a sacrifice for you. If you really love someone, then you don't wish to control them. It's not that you merely won't ask them to do something they don't want to do. We're not just talking about manners here. It's deeper than...

There is an old saying that when the U.S. market sneezes, international markets catch a cold. This week, the election seems to have contributed to a big sneeze in the U.S. markets, but foreign markets handled it with little more than a sniffle. A number of foreign...

The vote last Tuesday wasn't even close. I know what you're thinking. If you look at the national totals, the electoral college count, and the chaos in Florida, this election is probably the closest in history. But look at it again, state by state, precinct by...

Back in the late 1980s, nations of the west were delighted and pleased when Gorbachev introduced the political policies of Glasnost and Perastroika. Mild political reforms in a moribund communist behemoth were the antecedents to the eventual collapse of the Soviet...

An excerpt from the introduction to the book How Digital is Your Business? [CAPITALISM MAGAZINE.COM] Why this book? And why now? After all (you may be thinking), this isn't the first book on e-commerce and the Internet. It may not even be among the first hundred books...

Last week, while going through a pile of international research, I saw a report that shocked me: it was an analysis of defensive stocks with low valuations in Hong Kong. I hadn't seen defensive-value-themed research of that sort for at least two years, as investment...

By appearance alone, no one would ever guess that next year I'll celebrate my 65th birthday. Going by this year's presidential campaign promises, simply by surviving 65 years I acquire the right to have my prescription drugs paid by younger Americans. That's even if...

Conservatives and Republicans are ecstatic about the bond buy-back and debt pay-down policy now in effect. This is misplaced joy and a political miscalculation. Every dollar that we use to pay down the debt has an opportunity cost. Each dollar could be used in a...

If you thought the public uproar over George W. Bush's use of an expletive last [month] was big, imagine the national horror he would have provoked if he had said he was against offering any new Medicare benefits for the elderly. Al Gore wants to throw $250 billion at...