We are not in a cold war with China. That is too simple a metaphor to describe the state of Sino-American relations.

While federal policy battles and international affairs dominate the news cycle, America’s state and local governments quietly wrestle with their own challenges.

I keep replaying the video in my mind of the leader of the free world running a game of three card monte with the Russian government against the American people—especially that godawful little gesture where Obama reaches toward Medvedev for an intimate moment:

There’s no need to be defensive; the president made a good call on bin Laden, but his courage in that instance pales next to a record that includes his embrace of American decline, his fear of American leadership, his degradation of the military (and not just the Navy, as the Romney campaign appears to think).

Syria is going to hell in a handbasket, and the world is watching.

As China grows less predictable and the United States less willing to shoulder its responsibilities, familiar patterns of bilateral relations must change.

On Feb. 15, Leslie Moonves, the brilliant CEO of CBS, gave a piece of good news to investors — there would be an addition to the bottom line in 2012 of about $190 million, thanks to huge spending on political commercials coming into the network and its owned and operated...

What will happen to housing, mortgages and sovereign debt as we keep struggling with these problems, both in the United States and in Europe? What should happen? An expert panel will debate these and other issues around the current financial and economic dilemmas.