Herman Cain still has significant liabilities as a candidate and could make a disqualifying mistake any time. But he's beginning to look like a contender.

Slim's actions when he became British chief of staff were to shake up the system. He took over from Bernard Montgomery, who, true to form, used the occasion of the change of command to whine about things. Slim's response: "What have YOU done?!" A succinct but scathing indictment of the British system of leadership.

One of the myths that has grown up around the budget debate is that tax increases and spending cuts are just two sides of the same coin. Every week, it seems, some well-meaning group calls on the Republicans and Democrats to agree to a simple formula: the Republicans would agree to tax increases and the Democrats to spending cuts. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that.

The debt limit, as currently defined, is meaningless. The limit does not need to be raised; it needs to be reformed.

While conservatives have criticized the economic principles and class-baiting cadences of Obama’s budget rhetoric, no one has answered his fundamental charge that the Ryan plan is unfair. This is a lost opportunity. Advocates for limited government can win the fairness argument in a walk.

Gradually raising the early retirement age for Social Security from sixty-two to sixty-five would be a formidable solution to the long-term federal budget shortfalls by boosting the economy and federal tax revenues.

Hope springs eternal among policy makers in Europe’s beleaguered periphery. At five minutes to midnight in Athens, and with a bank run having started in Madrid, these policy makers cling to the forlorn hope that somehow Germany is going to relent on its strong opposition to euro bonds.

The Obama administration's efforts to increase unionization are harmful to the nation's employment outlook, as there are other methods available to raise wages and expand employment opportunities at a fraction of the cost of higher unionization.