A profound political question is suddenly on the table: Must the country continue to give precedence to private financial gain and market determinism over human lives and broad public values?

Leaks and whispers are a daily routine of news-gathering in Washington.

The regime of globalization promotes an unfettered marketplace as the dynamic instrument organizing international relations.

Folks in the bottom half of the economy are already squeezed hard. They will be bloodied and bankrupt if economic policy inadvertently induces a recession.

Money is power in American politics. It always has been.

The threat to globalization is not the wasted American dollars but Washington's readiness to mix US commercial interests with its self-appointed role as global protector.

In the deregulated realm of US banking and finance, crime does occasionally pay for its foul deeds, not in prison time but by making modest rebates to the victims.

The present struggle seems less about abolishing big government than about who gets to use it.

People know elections, like television commercials, are not real.

Obviously, people with low or even moderate incomes could not afford such savings rates, and even diligent savings from their low wages would not be enough to pay for either retirement or healthcare.

The economy is not governed with the bottom half in mind.

Where the mountain crosses.On top of the mountain, I do not myself know where.I wandered where my mind and my heart seemed to be lost.I wandered away.

The mind is like tofu. It tastes like whatever you marinate it in.

Never underestimate your own ignorance.

I respect the state workers and I respect their unions, but we simply can't afford to pay benefits and pensions that are out of line with economic reality.

To create a character who really interests you, try combining aspects of your favourite fictional character with a real person.

For liberals, supposedly good intentions always trump results.

What we are is our parents' children; what we become is our children's parents.

Better a square foot of New York than all the rest of the world in a lump - better a lamppost on Broadway than the brightest star in the sky.

Rule 1. Original data should be presented in a way that will preserve the evidence in the original data for all the predictions assumed to be useful.

Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore of nicely-caluculated less or more.