In practice, downsizing is too often about cutting your work force while keeping your business the same, and doing so not by investments in productivity-enhancing technology, but by making people pull 80-hour weeks and bringing in temps to fill the gap.

The world's central banks and the International Monetary Fund still have vaults full of bullion, even though currencies are no longer backed by gold. Governments hold on to it as a kind of magic symbol, a way of reassuring people that their money is real.

In order to work well, markets need a basic level of trust.

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

The U.S. is excellent at importing cheap products from the rest of the world. Let's try importing some human capital instead.

When all is said and done, cheap gas is an illusion, because our reliance on gas creates a whole series of costs that aren't factored in to the pump price - among them congestion, pollution, and increased risk of accidents.

Traditionally, tours were a means of promoting a record. Today, the record promotes the tour.