Call me Kreskin.

Less than two weeks ago, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was closing above 14,000 for the first time ever, I wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times designed to offer some historical perspective on the auspicious occasion and bring a little needed skepticism to the...

Tom Friedman almost caused a fistfight at my supper table a few weeks ago.

No, I wasn't dining with the celebrated author and New York Times columnist, just my brother and his girlfriend. But during the after-dinner conversation I did share my view that based on Friedman's enthusiastic support for...

Here we are a few days before the fifth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and ABC is preparing to air a mini-series purportedly based on the "9/11 Commission Report." But instead of simply focusing on the obvious intelligence failures that led to one of the most disastrous days...

Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, had a prime opportunity last week to help save his company and his country at the same time. Too bad for all of us he blew it.

Wagoner testified about the problems with America's health care system before the Senate Special...

Talk about missing the point completely.

The New York Times devoted parts of three pages in its Sunday Business section to a 3,500-word dissection of the problems at Ford, yet amazingly failed to mention even once the words at the heart of the auto industry's troubles: pensions and health...

When you're digging for facts these days it's a good idea to check who paid for the figures you're looking at before taking them seriously.

A case in point would be a new batch of research on CEO pay published by the Business Roundtable and trumpeted on page...

They say pitching wins baseball games. But if you ask the Colorado Rockies, accepting Jesus Christ may be more important.

The Rockies, perennial also-rans in the National League, have been one of the surprises of this young baseball season with their relatively competitive play. So last week, the team's management...

The numbers don't lie. Our economy is cranking right now.

The trouble is it doesn't remotely feel like it to many Americans. And if we don't do something about that dichotomy very soon we're going to create an economic underclass that will expose the cruel lie in our "blessed"...

Not too long ago if you were a middle class American you could feel secure in the knowledge that although healthcare costs were rising, as long as you held a steady paying job you wouldn't have to face the daunting prospect of living in this country without health insurance.

Well,...

"Driving is privilege, not a right."

It's likely the first thing you remember hearing in your high school drivers' ed class. And it's meant as a warning. You'd better be a safe driver, because if you screw around that privilege will be taken away.

So when I heard Massachusetts Governor...

Okay, this is just nuts.

As I pointed out in an earlier post, after journalist Jill Carroll was released late last week Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz wrongheadedly questioned her first interview, which was taped by Iraqis before she was handed over to U.S. forces, and lent...

Typically the only crime against humanity committed on "Imus in the Morning" is painfully unfunny dialogue.

But after journalist Jill Carroll was freed from captivity in Iraq late last week, the show obliterated the line between lame attempts at humor and truly dangerous stupidity.

From the moment Carroll was...

Kudos to the good people at the New York Historical Society for looking beyond the past sins of plagiarism committed by Doris Kearns Goodwin and bestowing on the prolific celebrity historian a prestigious award and $50,000 prize in honor of her recent biography of Abe Lincoln, "Team of Rivals."

On...

Ben Domenech's rapid resignation last week from the Washington Post's Republican blog, Red America, amid accusations of plagiarism is one more sign that major media outlets have to reconsider their Republican affirmative action programs.

I know it's pretty hilarious to think about right-wingers pushing FOR affirmative action, but how...

Every now and then you pick up the newspaper and something blows your mind for its sheer lunacy. Quite often it's some inanity out of the mouth of a Bush administration official, but today's winner is David Leonhart's column on the benefits of granting a bank charter to Wal-Mart...

Spend enough time in an insular community like Wall Street and you forget that the rest of the world doesn't see things through your jaded eyes.

Take the recent Securities and Exchange Commission subpoena seeking notes, emails, phone records and other correspondence from several respected financial journalists as part...

If today's statement by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding a subpoena issued to two reporters doesn't constitute a firing offense for Chairman Christopher Cox, I don't know what does.

Of course, in the topsy-turvy, "fail-up" world of Bush Administration politics, it's more likely that Cox just joined Donald Rumsfeld,...

I always figured my good friend and former colleague Carol Remond would wind up on the front page of The New York Times. But I never thought it would be like this.

In case you didn't see the story in Saturday's Times, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued...

So Merrill Lynch, the biggest brokerage house in the country, the one that likes to crow about being "Bullish on America," can't cut it in the mutual funds business.

If you haven't already seen the news, Merrill is selling its mutual funds to BlackRock Inc. In return Merrill...

It's a given that Americans don't read books.

A recently released Education Department study showed that roughly one in seven adults in this country, or more than 31 million Americans, can't read basic prose, let alone Philip Roth or John Updike. That percentage is unchanged from the previous...