A big chunk of rock went missing from Mount Rushmore when Paul Volcker broke away in 2008 to stand stony-faced behind candidate Barack Obama. The former Federal Reserve chairman served as a reassuring presence from an older, more orderly financial era that had been sacrificed on the altar of deregulation.
The right accuses Barack Obama of dragging the country way left, and the left calls him gutless. The president is proving both of them wrong.
Americans who shopped till they dropped have stopped. Per capita consumption is down for two straight years, according to Booz & Company's new study of U.S. spending behavior. That hasn't happened since the Great Depression.
Have you voted on any of the Democratic health care reform plans? Me neither.
In an essay titled, "Why I'm Leaving the Senate," Evan Bayh brilliantly explains what's wrong with the Senate and how to fix it. If only the headline had read, "Why I'm Not Leaving the Senate" -- or better, "Things I Will Do If Indiana Voters Give Me Another 6 Years."
We keep hearing that "Obama should move to the center." A variation on this theme is that the president should find the "sensible middle" on policy.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent dig that Florida is "for the old people" cut locals here to the quick.
Had George Washington joined me outside a Chili's at Chicago's O'Hare Airport recently, he would have shuddered at the sight.
The age of adulthood -- and the rights and responsibilities that come with it -- is largely a matter of opinion. Age 18 traditionally separates minors from adults. But one can't legally buy a drink in America until age 21. Meanwhile, many states are now sending minors into the adult criminal justice system, even for nonviolent crimes.
Sunbelt-and-sprawl advocate Joel Kotkin wrote two years ago that the future of American urbanism wasn't in the "elite cities," such as New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco, but in "younger, more affordable and less self-regarding places." He named (his order) Houston, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas and Riverside, Calif.
Money, spirituality and something else combined last October to set off a ghastly tragedy near Sedona, Ariz. Participants in a "Sweat Lodge" ceremony, run by New Age impresario James Arthur Ray, were overcome with heat. Three died, and 18 were hospitalized. Yavapai County investigators could charge Ray with homicide.
Is there a patriot in the house? Is there anyone in Washington who regards governing as a means to accomplish anything other than win the sterile game of Democrat versus Republican? Every day, American soldiers risk their lives for their country, but people in Congress won't even risk their jobs to pass legislation essential to the nation's economic future.
Somewhere between "Avatar's" first billion-dollar gross and its subsequent $841 million take lie my 10 bucks. "Avatar" is about blue-skinned beings who confront Earthlings actively strip mining their natural paradise on the moon Pandora.
Tax the bankers' profits, tax their bonuses, tax their golf scores. I mean it. Take their windfall, and give it to the taxpayers who bailed them out. Britain and France plan a 50 percent tax on banker bonuses -- coordinated lest their financial bigwigs think of crossing the channel for a better deal. President Obama's proposal to tax the big banks' extraordinary profits fits the theme.
Fifty years ago this month, a lawyer living in a posh New York suburb with his former model wife was being investigated for embezzlement. Julian Andrew Frank of Westport, Conn., took out nearly $900,000 in life insurance and then, investigators believed, boarded a National Airlines plane with a bomb and blew it up over North Carolina, killing himself and 33 others.
With polls showing that Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd would probably lose to most everyone running against him, the Democrat's decision not to seek re-election is a relief to all but his Republican opponents. A Senate seat from true-blue Connecticut isn't something Democrats should have to worry about. They've already got enough on their hands dealing with the state's other senator, independent Joe Lieberman.
The midterm elections this November have spawned midyear panic, largely by Democrats. With their majorities in the Senate and House, Democrats have the most to lose. And historically, the president's party sheds congressional seats at this point in the electoral cycle.
To paraphrase Yogi Berra, the bubble's not over till the last drop splatters. That is certainly the case with the housing bubble. Home prices that seemed to be strengthening over the summer have again slipped, according to the S&P Case-Shiller index. Neither low interest rates nor a fat tax credit for homebuyers has changed this reality.
U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz proudly championed a measure last spring that bans whole-body imaging as a primary screening technique at airports. "You don't have to look at my wife and 8-year-old daughter naked to secure an airplane," the Utah Republican said.
All through the long winter night, my digital gadgets lay snug in their recharging docks as Enya crooned on the iPod. It was on such a wintertide eve last December that I resolved to figure out all the things these wonderful devices could do -- other than have me tend to their ravenous energy needs and update their programs.
