The weak economy, widening income inequality, gridlock in Congress and a presidential election: Those were perhaps the dominant economic and political themes of 2012.

Indias rigid social structure limits intergenerational economic mobility and fosters acceptance of vast wealth disparities.

Thanks to decades of accumulated federal budget deficits and, more significantly, imprudent Medicare and Social Security policies, we've stolen almost $60 trillion from our children.

Not surprisingly, troubled economic times often beget proselytizers of wacky, extreme ideas.

The highest-income Americans don't need tax-free health insurance, mortgage interest deductions or deferred taxation on retirement funds.

Conservatives brayed that government should stay out of the private sector; liberals bleated for nationalizing the banks.

China has lunged into the 21st century, while India is still lurching toward it.

Most troublesome is the legalization of 'crowd funding,' the ability of start-up companies to raise capital from small investors on the Internet.

The largest number of jobs likely to be created by the JOBS Act will be for lawyers needed to clean up the mess that it will create.

Visits to crowded Indian urban centers unleash sensory assaults: colorful dress and lilting chatter provide a backdrop to every manner of commerce, from small shops to peddlers to beggars.

If you want meaning for your brand or company, dare to embrace conflict

I started DJing, breakdancing and MCing in the '70s and I got my record deal in 1979 with 'Christmas Rap.'

New York was the glamorous town that you only see now in old movies and on Broadway stages. The sky was lit up with dancing neon signs. It was safe to walk out in the streets.

The method of "postulating" what we want has many advantages; they are the same as the advantages of theft over honest toil.

If you cut Jamie Carragher open, he'll bleed red.

No act loses us; no violence we're subjected to destroys us; no debasement chases out the divine, and no one can take the divine from us.

If I drive myself to the brink of my ability, then I don't get stale or bored.

The story of love is hello and goodbye... until we meet again.

So much of my career has been about saying things the way people say them, using melodies not that I can sing but that the people can sing.

People keep asking me what I think of it now that it's done. Hence my protest: The Web is not done!