Obama's Stakhanovite efforts to transform America's economy and society into something akin to European-style social democracy are undergoing considerable analysis and debate, especially as the 2012 campaign steams towards November. Most presidential re-election contests are referenda on the incumbent, and this year will be no exception.

The Obama administration is going all out to attract Chinese companies to invest in the U.S., but at the same time, it has rebuffed the efforts of the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei to obtain contracts with major U.S. Internet providers or to take over U.S. telecom companies. At this event, a panel of experts will analyze the issues from both an economic and a security perspective.

Perceptions of uncertain future events like credit safety or credit risk are inherently subjective and highly influenced by the views of all the others who are doing what you are doing.

From the perspective of the corporate profit and loss statement, a trading loss is one expense item in the context of all revenues and expenses. So $2 billion should be compared to the bank's $26.7 billion in pretax profits for 2011, suggesting a reduction of something less than 10 percent in annual profit.

The FDA must continue to pressure Chinese authorities to test what is on the market and remove any substandard products found.

The costs to society - economically and socially - from setting policies based on fear rather than science are significant. The fear of synthetic chemicals diverts our focus and drains public funds from addressing documented dangers.

Fed officials have reason to seek to make monetary policy more accommodative.