“Thomas Jefferson, that owner of many slaves, chose to begin the Declaration of Independence by directly contradicting the moral basis of slavery, writing "we hold these truths to be self-evident, t...”

“At this point we can finally see what's really at stake in our peculiar habit of defining ourselves simultaneously as master and slave, reduplicating the most brutal aspects of the ancient househol...”

“In fact this is precisely the logic on which the Bank of Englandthe first successful modern central bankwas originally founded. In 1694, a consortium of English bankers made a loan of 1,200,000 to ...”

“money has no essence. It's not "really" anything; therefore, its nature has always been and presumably always will be a matter of political contention.”

“But if Smith was right, and gold and silver became money through the natural workings of the market completely independently of governments, then wouldn't the obvious thing be to just grab control ...”

“This is a great trap of the twentieth century: on one side is the logic of the market, where we like to imagine we all start out as individuals who don't owe each other anything. On the other is th...”

“Historically, the coupling of president and Speaker has been a tricky one that encourages a choreography both quick-footed and wary”

“Leaders bring things to conclusion, not necessarily consensus.”

“Jousting with an obvious hoodlum couldn't hurt.”

“In an era of globalization, people recognize that they are part of a global society, but they have no idea how to make such a society work. So far, no unified vision or leadership has emerged to gu...”

“Everybody should be equal in a democracy - that is the nature of a democracy.”

“You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words ...”

“If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.”

“Voting is a civic sacrament.”

“In most places in the country, voting is looked upon as a right and a duty, but in Chicago it's a sport.”