As boom- and bust-prone as high finance always has been and remains, the greatest systemic risk to our economy is not Wall Street. It's the growing federal debt (and weakening dollar) being enacted by those Washington politicians - the ones who want to protect us from Wall Street.

It may not be fair, but it's true that in politics - in TV broadcasting, in any public figure - people pay attention to your appearances. One of the things we were all talking about was Al Gore won't be running for president unless we see that he's losing weight. Americans usually elect a taller man president.

A Diogenesian search for an honest person would rarely lead to the author of a memoir.

While, as I recall, conservative little boys practice quick draw with their cap guns while playing cowboys and Indians, apparently liberal little boys practice how fast they can throw up their hands to surrender to the guys in the black hats.

We think we can't survive without deficit spending - but we soon won't be able to survive with deficit spending, either.

The Republican party must break with its long-established instinct for caution and make a bold stand for first principles of freedom and constitutional limitations on government - from full repeal of Obamacare to rolling back multitrillion-dollar deficits. This is not so much a reproach of past Republican conduct as it is a recognition of new opportunities.

I've always found that avoiding insanity is useful in life - which in American politics sometimes puts one in the minority.