If President Obama still wants to turn our economy around, it's time for him to act more like Franklin Roosevelt-but not in the way he might think.

The Marshall Plan's role in the economic recovery of Europe after World War II is often invoked as indisputable proof that foreign aid works. In 2005, while serving as chancellor of the exchequer, British prime minister Gordon Brown called for "a new deal between developed and developing countries as bold...

Only the implementation ofa Marshall Plan with an eye toward business development can bring sub-Saharan Africa out of economic futility.

We simply have to face the fact that banking is fundamentally risky. As I decided long ago when working in banks, the reason we needed to wear dark suits and have classic buildings was to look conservative in order to offset the real riskiness of what we were doing. 

Because of the differences among Western allies, a fully coordinated economic response to the unfolding events in Eastern Europe is unlikely. Nor is it necessary. This is one area in which America can go it alone.

The Nobel Peace Prize is the world’s most prestigious award, as Jay Nordlinger argues in this erudite and insightful history. He has written not only the go-to reference book for the prize and its laureates but also an important philosophical reflection on the nature of “peace” in modern times.

Walter Russell Mead’s column in the Wall Street Journal last week praises America’s bipartisan policy in Asia, claiming that it may be as influential as NATO or the Marshall Plan. I’m a bit less optimistic than Mead on the depth of strength our policy has. It’s not a Potemkin village, but I think it falls short of the informally cohesive structure he sees.