The new president will need to decide whether democracy in the process is more important than democracy as the final result. How should the United States react if, as the new regimes rewrite their constitutions, they turn from democracy toward theocracy? (INCLUDES VIDEO)

The dominant financial and economic fact of 2011 is that we are still living in the wake of the great 21-st century bubble. The dominant problem with being in the wake of the bubble is that we cannot escape Pollock's Law of Finance, which states: Loans that cannot be paid will not be paid.

President Obama indicated his seriousness about exports when he committed to double them by 2015, but he has given conflicting signals about his commitment to trade liberalization. While the administration has praised the passage of the FTAs with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea, the president waited far too long to submit the legislation to Congress.

We all deserve blame for the S&P downgrade. This is a national foul-up of historic proportions, and no party or constituency can completely avoid culpability.

We are repeating history and thus will repeat the mistakes of history; here are four ideas to make sure the future is better than the past.

Twelve years into the 21st century, the dominant financial and economic fact is that we are still living in the wake of athe vast housing and mortgage bubble, which peaked in mid-2006, almost six years ago.  

President Obama is following not merely an erroneous anti-terrorism strategy, but one that is increasingly incoherent and incompetent.

The idea that corporations are the equivalent of people leads directly to the next step: direct contributions to candidates from corporate coffers, not just unlimited expenditures to influence campaigns.