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A few days ago my wife and I were on a trip. It was early morning, and we stopped at a well-known fast food chain to get breakfast. We pulled up to the drive through only to be greeted by a surly, unhelpful voice that seemed to be irritated and bothered by customers who help pay her salary. Now I'll admit that working the pre-dawn hours at a fast food window is not my idea of the ideal job, but if it happens to be the only one you have at the time, shouldn't you do it to the best...

How did American culture fall prey to the lowest common denominator in our country? When did we start admiring primitive cultures and considering them superior to our western civilization, giving in to their needy and outrageous demands no matter what happens to our own citizens? How did the Western world fall prey to Marxist-Leninists, to Islam, and to the rap music of the ghetto and prison culture? How was Europe colonized by Islam in just a few decades of open-borders immigration? Why did its leaders eagerly embrace Islam instead of their own citizens, committing cultural and demographic suicide?

In the pursuit of utopia where there are never any hurt feelings, America’s wealthy, cosseted college campuses have given birth to the nonsense concept of microaggression, typically employed to denounce as “racist” anything someone (usually of a “protected class”) doesn’t like. The beauty of the concept is that the purported perpetrator doesn’t have to be conscious of and have any intention of bigotry.

A Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to indict the New York City police officer responsible for the homicide of Eric Garner sparked nationwide protests and has provoked an escalating confrontation between the NYPD and the city’s mayor. On Monday, a Reuters report indicated that a New York City judge will hear arguments over whether those sealed grand jury deliberations should be released to the public.

No, apparently this is not a spoof, the scion of the man who was responsible for the Cuban blockade is full of awe for the Cuban dictatorship. Sure, it’s a dictatorship, but other than that, it’s just ducky, apparently. Writing in the South American news agency MercoPress, Robert F. Kennedy avers, after admitting the dictatorship and lack of a free press: Despite its poverty, Cuba has managed some impressive accomplishments. Cuba’s government boasts the highest literacy rates for its population of any nation in the hemisphere. Cuba claims its citizens enjoy universal access to health care and more doctors per...

The year just ended saw one leftist narrative after another collapse under the weight of reality, and the Republicans still sucking their thumbs, turning the other cheek, and failing to effectively respond. My online friend, hit and run, characterized the usual political dialogue:

All that is by way of understanding how some people may miscalculate the true power of the black minority in America, as one of its more radical leaders appears to have done. Malik Zulu Shabazz, aka Paris Lewis, a former head of the New Black Panther Party, who fancies himself some sort of pseudo-military field marshal, wearing five stars on the stiff collars of his olive drab uniform, has recently issued a call to arms to the black community, intoning that 2015 is the year for them to “build up their army” and “go to the gun range.” Here’s a...

<p>NEW YORK—Facebook Inc. FB -6.57% shares fell below the initial public offering price of $38 Monday, its second day of trading, a black eye for all those involved with the social networking company going public.</p> <p>Facebook shares changed hands at $37.08, down 3%, in premarket trading.</p>

Rogers told CNBC that the timing of an IPO this week would be a smart move by Facebook. "It's been demonstrated many, many times before that sellers are usually smarter than the buyers, and they usually know when the best time to sell is, and Facebook is doing it," he said. Turning to the broader US economy, Rogers said the United States looks and feels better because the government is throwing money at it. "There is an election in November 2012. Every time there is an election, the government pumps as much money as it can so it can to...

Members of Congress already get better health insurance and retirement benefits than other Americans. They are about to get better insider trading laws as well. Several academic studies show that the investment portfolios of congressmen and senators consistently outperform stock indices like the Dow and the S&P 500, as well as the portfolios of virtually all professional investors. Congressmen do better to an extent that is statistically significant, according to studies including a 2004 article about "abnormal" Senate returns by Alan J. Ziobrowski, Ping Cheng, James W. Boyd and Brigitte J. Ziobrowski in the Journal of Financial and Qualitative Analysis....

(Reuters) - The United States is losing its appeal as leading global center for stock market flotations, hit by restrictive regulations and competition from other financial centers, a survey of American lawyers showed on Thursday. Just over 70 percent of a 50-strong sample of transaction attorneys, whose firms advised on three-quarters of initial public offerings (IPO) listed on major U.S. exchanges this year, said the country is losing its attraction as IPO venue of choice. "The simple fact is that as the U.S. regulatory environment has become more restrictive, other global exchanges have become more sophisticated and liquid and therefore...

CHINA’S PRESENCE IN GLOBAL CAPITAL MARKETS IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. ECONOMIC AND SECURITY INTERESTS HEARING BEFORE THE U.S.-CHINA ECONOMIC AND SECURITY REVIEW COMMISSION ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS April 16, 2004 Written Statement of William Gamble Emerging Market Strategies 281 Olney Street Providence, RI 02906 401-272-8906 xgamble@cs.com Economics is not just about capital and technological constraints. It is also about political&#8209;legal institutions, such as the protection of property rights and the enforcement of contracts that are critical determinants of sustainable economic growth and investment opportunities. The problems of the Chinese economy are systemic. The Chinese Communist Party has chosen power over the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - It is shaping up to be the best year for initial public offerings since the mania of 2000, with deals in the first half of 2004 surpassing those done in all of 2003. This year, 88 U.S. IPOs have raised $16.23 billion, compared with 10 deals that raised $2.33 billion in the same period last year, according to preliminary figures compiled on Thursday by Thomson Financial. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MWD - news) ranked as the top bookrunner for first half of the year, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS - news) came in second and J.P. Morgan...

This morning's e-mail brought notice of a dot-com Initial Public Offering (IPO) from Alibris, Inc., an Internet bookseller whose services I have sometimes used to buy out-of-print books, so I'm on its mail list. I forwarded the Alibris e-mail to my correspondent, Jack Andersen, author of many Sages' Pages pieces. I asked him whether he thought this IPO was a harbinger of a new bubble. This was his answer. Yes……stocks, bonds, precious metals & commodities, housing……all asset classes. The Fed made cash worthless. So much so that individuals followed the pros into the carry trade (borrow short, buy any asset)....

If you're looking for good news about the economy, look no further than the venture capital market. Venture investing is off from its heights in the go-go years of the late 1990s. But it's still chugging along at a healthy pace. Investors have become a bit more discriminating. But there's still money out there for entrepreneurs with good ideas. And that's good news for the long-term health of the economy. These new and small firms will provide the products and ideas that will fuel future growth. Among them will likely be "the next big thing." Excerpt. Rest of article.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - DrKoop.com, the online consumer health information pioneer that rode the Internet frenzy from boom to bankruptcy, on Monday was bought by Vitacost.com, a seller of health-related products over the Internet, for $186,000, Vitacost said. At one time worth more than $1 billion, DrKoop.com -- founded in 1997 by former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop -- fell into bankruptcy in December as it struggled to turn public interest in its online health information into a reliable revenue stream. Vitacost, a privately held company based in Boynton Beach, Florida, sells health and nutrition products over the...