Let’s try to look beyond last week’s political scrap over repeated bailouts of the banking system, and consider some of the longer-term consequences of the billions that the American government has already thrown — and in the near-term will continue to throw — at America’s financial institutions. Start by giving a wide berth to stories about a possible default by the government, the end of the dollar’s reign as the world’s reserve currency, and runaway inflation. Read Full Story

WASHINGTON -- There were no knockout blows in the first presidential debate of the fall, but John McCain out-pointed Barack Obama often enough to encourage his followers that he can somehow overcome the odds and deny the Democrats the victory that has seemed to be in store for them. Read Full Story

The Treasury’s plan to buy troubled assets has a $700 billion price tag, and it will mean a huge amount of government spending. However, due to accounting rules it likely won’t have any effect on the 2009 budget deficit. Read Full Story

t was not that Barack Obama could not or would not go after John McCain. It was just that McCain towered over Obama on every issue of substance — especially when it came to guarding the security of this nation. This was not a debate characterized by clever one liners or gaffs that helped or hurt a particularly candidate. It was a square-off between a young man of great charm and confidence in his ability to charm his way into any position he seeks and an old warrior, who has seen enough of... Read Full Story

Far be it from me to differ with the punditocracy's mainstream, but I happen to feel that last night's debate was a pretty big win for John McCain. I'm aware that most observers have called it a draw, agreeing that both men performed rather ably. I'm also aware that the polls show a majority of watchers thought Obama "won." But still, it was a big night for McCain. Or more precisely, it was a bad night for Obama. Judging these things like a high school debate is a fool's (or CNN's) errand.... Read Full Story

Barack Obama is America's first major party presidential candidate to have come of age after the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s and '70s. Americans who reached adulthood before or during the Cultural Revolution often differ over the big events of recent history. Americans who came of age afterward, on the other hand, don't necessarily know any recent history. And what they do know is often wrong. Every candidate makes mistakes on the stump, and voters allow for the gigantic g-forces ex... Read Full Story

John McCain, restless and emotional, couldn't resist the temptation to join the battle to rescue our financial markets and save the economy. It was the biggest and most important fight around, bigger and more important than his campaign scrap with Barack Obama. Being engaged in the action--in the arena--is where McCain always wants to be. So he cast his presidential campaign aside, temporarily, and headed back to Washington. The campaign could wait. It might even benefit. Obama, placid and... Read Full Story

Snack-sized quantities of walnuts slow cancer growth in mice, reports a Marshall University pilot study published in the current issue of the peer-reviewed journal Nutrition and Cancer. Researcher W. Elaine Hardman, Ph.D., of Marshall's Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine said the study was designed to determine whether mice that got part of their calories by eating walnuts had slower breast cancer growth than a group eating a diet more typical of the American diet. Read Full Story

It is highly probable that that moment, the very hour that he takes office, will be the high point of his presidency. Whoever wins on November 4 will be ascending to the job at one of the most difficult times for an American chief executive in at least half a century. When the votes are counted his people might ruefully conclude that the victor is not Barack Obama or John McCain. The real winner will be Hillary Clinton, or Mitt Romney, or Mike Huckabee, or some now happily anonymous figure wh... Read Full Story

JPMorgan Chase & Co. came to the rescue of ailing Washington Mutual on Thursday, buying the nation's largest thrift after WaMu was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) in the largest bank failure in world history. Read Full Story