Companies are not charitable enterprises: They hire workers to make profits. In the United States, this logic still works. In Europe, it hardly does.

Even fans of actively managed funds often concede that most other investors would be better off in index funds. But buoyed by abundant self-confidence, these folks aren't about to give up on actively managed funds themselves. A tad delusional? I think so. Picking the best-performing funds is 'like trying to predict the dice before you roll them down the craps table,' says an investment adviser in Boca Raton, FL. 'I can't do it. The public can't do it.'

The problem is no longer that with every pair of hands that comes into the world there comes a hungry stomach. Rather it is that, attached to those hands are sharp elbows.

Every good cause is worth some inefficiency.

It isn't that greed's increased. What's increased is the realization that you've got a free field to reach out for what you'd like to do.

I don't care very much for the People Magazine approach to applied economics.

Globalization presumes sustained economic growth. Otherwise, the process loses its economic benefits and political support.