Markets have built in inefficiencies, serious inefficiencies which are well known.

It is important to bear in mind that political campaigns are designed by the same people who sell toothpaste and cars.

When I arrived in Laos and found young Americans living there, out of free choice, I was surprised. After only a week, I began to have a sense of the appeal of the country and its people - along with despair about its future.

The US is also unusual in the enormous scale of religious fundamentalism. The impact on understanding of the world is extraordinary. In national polls almost half of those surveyed have reported that they believe that God created humans in their present form 10,000 years ago (or less) and that man shares no common ancestor with the ape. There are similar beliefs about the Second Coming.

There's never been anything like the so-called Vietnam Syndrome: it's mostly a fabrication.

Ontological questions are generally beside the point, hardly more than a form of harassment.

Haiti, which has been the main target of US intervention throughout the 20th century, is the poorest. And Guatemala, which is maybe the third major target of US intervention, probably ranks third poorest.