In the context of news and media, there is a popular belief that journalists and reporters are ethically bound to avoid injecting any of their personal opinions into their work.  This assumption leads many people into a blind belief of anything that is reported by the news agencies.  The unfortunate impact of this phenomenon is that so many people accept what is reported to them in the news without any skepticism or question that it is quite possible for the masses to be manipulated.
In the world that we live in, …

Many people spend considerable amounts of time following the news of the day, and subsequently become angry over the state of world affairs.  Most people who see problems around them are infused with a natural desire to resolve them.  Ironically, this desire to solve problems is a constant thread across both left-leaning and right-leaning people.
To many of the left-leaning persuasion, daily news brings a perpetual onslaught of human suffering that is being allowed to go unchecked and unchanged by society.  Their desire is for somebody to do something to ease …

With recent news overwhelmed by the financial difficulties of US state and national budget deficits, along with the continued financial difficulties in Europe there is a renewed focus on the impact of debt on national wellbeing.  This is especially important because most of the developed world is not far behind the major problems of these European nations.  The most important thing to understand about debt is exactly what it is, and by extension, what it is not.
What’s the Deal with Debt?
Fundamentally, debt is a financial magnifying glass.  It will amplify …

One of the topics that most people are highly interested in is the prospect of becoming affluent.  It is not uncommon at all for people to express a strong desire to become wealthy.  However, the majority of people who express this desire are either lacking in knowledge concerning how to create affluence, or are acting on bad advice.  Thus, the journey to affluence remains a mystery to many people … a mystery that requires a secret to solve.
The disappointing truth about achieving affluence is that it’s not based on a …

One of the phrases that has caught hold in corporate culture is “work-life balance” or the art of balancing the demands of work against having a happy and productive home life.  This concept is very easy to talk about, but becomes more complicated when people try to put it into action.  The most important thing to understand when talking about balance is the effect of trade-offs.
What Balance Really Means
Life is a collection of trade-offs.  When you seek to get one thing, you frequently end up giving up something else.  When …

Most people have received a wide variety of financial advice over the years.  There is a particular brand of advice, supposedly dispensed by a semi-fictitious secondary parental character that has become particularly widespread.  This
philosophy contains many key points, some of which have validity and merit.
However, one of the key things that all investors need to consider whether the advice they are receiving is a fact, or a fallacy.  The unfortunate truth is that much of the advice being presented by popular authors and speakers as financial facts are actually financial …

Many people have heard the popular phrase “climbing the corporate ladder” in reference to the development of a person’s career.  This conjures up mental images of pushing people out of the way to claw your way up to the top.  This hyper-competitive view of the world has created a dour image of professional success in the minds of many people.
It is most certainly true that there is an element of “dog eat dog” competition when it comes to careers, but it is also true that there are many people who …

In the current world, and in most work environments, email has become an indispensable part of life.  And this has happened for good reason … email allows people to rapidly communicate across large distances, sharing content and ideas.  This increase in the speed of communication has enabled business models that were not possible in the past and has catapulted business to perpetually faster rates of speed and innovation. The unfortunate side of this fantastic tool is that the rapid rate of communication it enabled has also enabled rapid mus-communication.
Because …

In our current era of expanding government, there has been a dramatic resurgence of anti-establishment sentiment that seeks to fight against the powers in charge of government.  Ironically, the people who were most vocal in opposition of the government during the 1960′s have risen to positions of power and are now the target of opposition by people who don’t appreciate the dramatic escalation of government that has occurred over the last 40 years, capped off by the near-complete abandonment of traditional checks and balances in a deterministic quest to pass …

In the aftermath of the bank failures, bailouts and financial scandals that emerged from the crisis of 2008, the common explanation is that “greed” caused the adverse behaviors that precipitated the collapse.  When thinking about this explanation in some more depth, one must consider that in order for “greed” to be the reason behind the collapse, then people would need to have become abruptly more greedy than normal.
The contrary view is that if greed is a constant function (meaning that people do not become more or less greedy over time …