When Barack Obama's remarkable eloquence was dismissed as "just words" during the primary campaign, he survived the criticism. Telling the truth and offering inspiration aren't just words. They are incredibly important in keeping a society together. Now Obama faces another challenge where words can make a difference over whether the...

Like a zombie that can't be killed, the $70-an-hour autoworker lie is alive and well, roaming the media landscape -- and still being peddled by The New York Times in Monday's edition.

As Media Matters and other critics reported last week, it's a conservative myth...

It's now official, says the National Bureau of Economic Research. The seven "Wise Men" announced today that the economy entered a recession back in December 2007. The "Wise Men" are seven economists on the NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee. They included a woman, Christina Romer, but she resigned last...

The current economic crisis has claimed many victims, but what has changed most is the way that the United States is viewed, perhaps permanently. That isn't ideology; it isn't declinism; it's a fact. For all the talk in past year about the shifting balance of power globally, until now it...

Frank Capra's perennial Christmas movie It's a Wonderful Life is remembered mainly for celebrating civic and familial virtues. George Bailey sacrifices his dreams for those of others, but in the end receives the greatest rewards of all.

But George was also a good industrial economist. Reluctant inheritor of dad's Bedford...

Losing your job is dreadful, no matter what the reason. In this journalist's mind, it's better than health issues, divorce, and death -- but that's it.

The new holiday movie Four Christmases reminded me of how we can get trapped with family during the holidays. Under normal...

Look, I don't want to be a pill and rain on the whole gloom thing we're all experiencing. There's no doubt it's real. I look at the numbers the same as you do. Revenue is down. Unemployment is up. We're circling the drain, definitely, I'm not arguing with anybody about...

(Washington) Internationally known philanthropist Santa Claus made a surprise appearance before Congress today to request a massive loan to keep his workshop open, asserting that, without an immediate infusion of cash, "This may be the year without a Christmas."

Mr. Claus, age unknown, offered...

There's been a lot of talk in the media these days that the next shoe to drop in the credit crisis/financial meltdown will be commercial real estate. Two weeks ago there were a couple of moderately-sized defaults on mortgage loans (hotel and retail projects) that were packaged in commercial mortgage...

After thirteen months of a historic stock market plunge (yes, the worst since the Great Depression), occasionally interrupted by the usual sucker's rallies (of which last week's move may be the latest or may be the start of a recovery), the stock market is, finally, back to a rough approximation...

Like our president-elect who proclaimed himself as much, America is a mutt; indeed is comprised of mutts. It's a mélange of diverse elements, a piece from this culture and a sliver from that heritage. Instead of just the rhetorical flourish delivered by a smarmy pol at a patriotic pep rally...

In December 1862, President Abraham Lincoln wrote in his second annual message to Congress:

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so must we think anew,...

A friend and fellow entrepreneur, Paige Rolfe of Wardrobewire.com, recently spent time in the Amazon with one of oldest tribes in the world. When I asked her about life there, she described a scene that reminded me a little of life here: The women collaborate when it comes to...

Now that the federal government is committed to spending or guaranteeing as much as $7.8 trillion to salvage the financial system, it's worth it for non-economists to better understand how got into this mess -- and how to get out of it. President-elect Obama has picked a