The raw fact is that every successful example of economic development this past century ... has taken place via globalization.

Social Security is a social insurance program - it is not designed to be the same thing as a 401(k).

Raising the minimum wage and lowering the barriers to union organization would carry a trade-off - higher unemployment. A better idea is to have the government subsidize low-wage employment. The earned-income tax credit for low-income workers - which has been the object of proposed cuts by both President Clinton and congressional Republicans - has been a positive step in this direction.

Coming up with a good idea, with an insight into the way the world works that is really new and that you really believe in, is a deeply satisfying experience.

But Wall Street people are in fact very smart; they're funny, they're not company men who work their way up the chain.

Asset bubbles have happened even without not-so-easy money. And, in a depressed economy, where alternative uses of money are not great, people are going to bid up the prices of profitable corporations and stuff like that.

The United States in particular and the West in general should be feeling a little embarrassed about all that lecturing we did to the Third World.