Evidence of defendants' lavish lifestyles is often used to provide a motive for fraud. Jurors sometimes wonder why an executive making tens of millions of dollars would cheat to make even more. Evidence of habitual gluttony helps provide the answer.

For chat-room tyros who expect to make their first million day-trading by age 27, paging through the Sunday newspaper with a pair of scissors just to save a couple of cents on Cheetos seems so, well, old economy.

Even so, sometimes I wish I did have a little bit more flair in my language.

Also, most people read fiction as an escape - and I wonder whether my books aren't a bit too grounded in reality to reach the widest possible audience.

Sergeant Bergdahl may have broken any number of military laws.

Volatility may be rising simply because investors must digest more information every day.

If only the human body could handle trauma as well as biotechnology stocks do.