It hasn't been easy to find American citizens who are willing to pick fruit in 110 degree weather.

I'd be kidding if I said that I predicted the financial collapse.

Iran is a country of 80 million people, educated and dynamic. It sits astride a crucial part of the world. It cannot be sanctioned and pressed down forever. It is the last great civilization to sit outside the global order.

If there is one lesson for U.S. foreign policy from the past 10 years, it is surely that military intervention can seem simple but is in fact a complex affair with the potential for unintended consequences.

Religions are vague, of course. This means that they are easy to follow -you can interpret their prescriptions as you like. but it also means that it is easy to slip up -there is always some injunction you are violating. But Islam has no religious establishment - no popes, no bishops - that can declare by fiat which is the correct interpretation. As a result, the decision to oppose the state on the grounds that is insufficiently Islamic belongs to anyone who wishes to exercise it.

It's not possible for two countries to be the leading dominant political power at the same time.

The American consumer, even today, the weight of the American consumer in the global economy is China plus India doubled. So, it's tough to replace that.