Taxmageddon is the result of the extreme shortsightedness of President Obama and the Democrats, who extended current tax policies for only two years back in 2010. The latest research suggests that the economy will suffer severely this year for that shortsightedness.

Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz are at a more than 20-year high after Iranian authorities threatened to close the 34-mile-wide channel through which more than one-third of the world's oil tanker traffic passes.

Japanese are disappearing in slow motion and so far, there is no rescue plan.

The environment has long been the undisputed territory of the political left. Philosopher Roger Scruton agrees that the environment is the most urgent political problem of our age but argues in his new book "How to Think Seriously About the Planet" that conservatism is far better suited to tackle environmental problems than either liberalism or socialism.

The Postal Service needs to be converted into a regular business, facing market competition and disciplined by active, focused shareholders. It must be permitted to reduce its high and rigid costs, and to adjust to the realities of a new communications marketplace. This should be done through de-monopolization, corporatization, and eventual privatization, as has been done in many other countries.

Social Security's retirement age should not be increased for anyone on the verge of retirement, but there's a good case for doing so over coming decades, as the Baby Boomers retire and the population ages.

North Korea's Kim Jong-Il, who passed away at the age of 69, has bequeathed a legacy of poverty and starvation to the country's subject population, and a highly uncertain future to his nominal legatees, the Communist royals of his dynastic police state.

Just when it looked like the job market was going to rebound, recent unemployment numbers revealed a disappointing reality.