People's attitudes have been changing over the past 15 years, but China is still the world's biggest consumer of dogs.

There are too many mediocre things in life to deal with. Love shouldn't be one of them. Anything less than extraordinary is a waste of my time.

The American Dream, the idea of the happy ending, is an avoidance of responsibility and commitment.

The higher the unemployment rate, the more leverage I have to 'encourage' you to 'do what it takes' to keep your job. And so you work even more hours, pushing unemployment up and wages down. And that, my friends, is one of the little tricks that keeps you poor and me rich.

America's critics can be heard everywhere. It is too much in love with money - worshipping the god of the marketplace, the golden calf. It has too much money, seven of the top 10 banks, eight of the top 10 companies etc. It is too stingy, giving away less of its wealth than other countries. It is vulgar, a rich barbarian.

Make the financial industry pay for its mistakes. That's the idea behind the best of the Obama administration's reform proposals: If banks issue securities backed by mortgages, say, then require them to hold some of that paper so that they will bear some of the losses.

It is harder to explain why free markets create wealth than it is to pander to workers who have been displaced by global competition.