If you work for Google or Apple, stock options give you a chance to share in the increasing value of the company. In the N.F.L., nothing like this happens; the players, though rich, are just working stiffs like the rest of us.

When Americans are asked to rank professions in terms of honesty and ethics, insurance agents routinely end up near the bottom of the list - somewhere between politicians and car salesmen. Generally, insurers are seen as clever hucksters who prey on insecurity and ignorance to sell people what they don't need at prices they shouldn't have to pay.

Movies' mistrust of capitalism is almost as old as the medium itself.

Wall Street has come a long way from the insider-dominated world that was blown apart by the Great Depression.

Congressional Republicans themselves have vehemently defended the idea that preexisting conditions should not be used to deny people insurance.

In confusing stock options with ownership, corporations confuse trappings with substance.

To be sure, if you watch CNBC all day long you'll pick up some interesting news about particular companies and the economy as a whole. Unfortunately, to get to the useful information, you have to wade through reams of useless stuff, with little guidance on how to distinguish between the two.