Crash Course in Economics

The first time I was in a car crash, I was six or seven years old.

That's a long time ago. But there are certain things about it that I remember quite vividly.

My father was driving. The road was icy. We began to slide. This was in the days before seat belts and cars had bench seats, upholstered, but not shaped for each individual bottom. My father shot out his right arm and pressed me against the seat back to keep me from flying forward if, indeed, we ended up in hitting something.

Who Will Protect Us From Plunge Protection?

I often think about the alphabet of the financial crisis -- a lexicon of terms like plunder -- I wrote a book taking off on that idea -- but, also related 'P' words: pricing, panic and plunge.

I think of this last one spelled this way: plungeeeeeee as in falling off a cliff. And the dictionary sort of backs me up:

plunge |plənj|

verb

1 [ intrans. ] jump or dive quickly and energetically: our daughters whooped as they plunged into the sea.

• fall suddenly and uncontrollably: a car swerved to avoid a bus and plunged into a ravine.

Military Industrial Complex 2.0

Seven years into George W. Bush's Global War on Terror, the Pentagon is embroiled in two big wars, a potentially explosive war of words with Tehran, and numerous smaller conflicts - and it is leaning ever more heavily on private military contractors to get by.

Once upon a time, soldiers did more than pick up a gun. They picked up trash. They cut hair and delivered mail. They fixed airplanes and inflated truck tires.

A Conservative Confidence Game

Drilling for a 'Comprehensive' Energy Plan

To drill or not to drill. We know the answer of the Republicans from their "drill, baby, drill" convention. Last weekend, President Bush again called for oil drilling on the outer continental shelf and blamed Democrats for blocking him. "This is their final chance to take action before the November elections," Bush warned. "If members of Congress do not support the American people at the gas pump, then they should not expect the American people to support them at the ballot box."