Switzerland’s first female Finance Minister, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, is on a quest to convince the Swiss Parliament that secrecy in banking is no less than the bane of all humanity. (Or something along those lines.) Also, this week the G-8 meetings are expected to focus heavily on “international tax avoidance” and international taxation efforts.

Well, at least China's middle class is expanding, for now. That's not something we can say here in the US.

The NSA is checking out your email, Common Core standards are logging away information about your kids, and now the CFPB is tracking consumer purchases. . . Oh, you don’t know what CFPB stands for? Don’t worry: Diane Katz, with the Heritage Foundation, is here to help.

Most sensible people already understand that countries with free markets and small government out-perform nations with big welfare states and lots of intervention.

The Russian leadership has been very clear in communicating that its support for Syria is in part payback for NATO's intervention in Libya.

The people of the world are growing increasingly frustrated and tired of corrupt, invasive governments with little accountability to their people and the United States is no exception.

Google’s acquisition of Waze hints at decisive digital technology shifts for the next presidential election. At about the same time, the Republican National Committee has hired young Andy Barkett from Facebook as their new Chief Technology Officer.

The world feels like it's going to the dogs, and this week will only add further proof. There's the Big Dog Ben Bernanke who plans to bark intentions to slow down on the money printing presses while at the same time letting Wall Street know in no uncertain terms he is their best friend.

Earnings are expected to grow rapidly at Netflix for at least the next few years. With projected earnings per share this year of $1.41, that gives the stock a PE of 163.

Once you reach 591/2, you can take penalty-free distributions from either a traditional or Roth IRA at any time but you may have to pay income taxes (non-deductible contributions can be withdrawn tax-free).

In an age when “finance” editors, like the HuffPo’s Mark Gongloff, are demonstrably anti-business, pro-Occupy and work as shills for progressive ideas, facts take a back seat to ideology, outrage and agendas.

With blended funds it’s almost like having a babysitter for your money. You’re not the one watching the kids, and to me that’s a big mistake.

Europe is attempting to resolve domestic imbalances by forcing them onto their trade partners. This will end badly, especially for Germany

Kyle Olson, CEO of eagnews.com, joined the program to discuss the ongoing challenges in education. Everything from Common Core to more powerful unions are threatening to further devolve American Education.

Earlier this month, Paul Krugman wrote that, “a Heritage Foundation economist has been accused of presenting false, deliberately misleading data and analysis to the Senate Budget Committee.” Krugman was too clever to assert that the Heritage economist “did present” dishonest data, but if you read his short post, he clearly wants readers to believe that an unambiguous falsehood has been exposed.

The purpose of this proposal for talks is to achieve by implication, if not by direct engagement, US recognition of North Korea as a nuclear armed power. That explains the open-ended nature of the offer-any topic, any place, any time, without conditions.

One could even go so far as to say that there are a number of factors indicating anything but a recovery. A large portion of the population is underemployed and shackled to an overwhelming amount of student loan debt - debt that will siphon liquidity from the markets as well as from the individuals.

The Fed trying to keep Wall Street calm is akin to parents buying their fat child candy to stop him from whining. Let him whine and let the Street complain.

In the best case, it seems, what the GSA is really saying is: “We aren’t liars per se, we’re just really incompetent.” That’s not surprising, since it’s the standard patter coming from D.C. when anyone wishes to avoid responsibility, solutions, budget cuts, or criminal charges.

Representative Larson finds it horrifically “unfair” that he and his staff will be forced into the same healthcare that is scheduled to be imposed on tens of millions of Americans. The Democrat, who was among the leadership in his party when healthcare reform was passed, said “this is simply not fair to these employees. They are federal employees.”

I see this as very similar to the rise of the Five-Star Movement (M5S) in Italy, where the mainstream media gave M5S no chance, yet M5S ended up as the largest political party in Italy at election time.

Seems like he understands that Europe made a big mistake by having too many people in the wagon and too few people pulling the wagon.

Over 90 percent of the decline is directly attributable to the tax hikes that went into effect in 2013, including the Social Security payroll tax hike, the various Obamacare tax hikes and President Obama's desired tax hikes upon high income earners and investments that were part of the fiscal cliff tax deal at the beginning of the year, all of which applied at the federal government level.

Apple CEO Tim Cook advanced this notion with the quote, “The app store and the IOS ecosystem give budding developers with great ideas the best chance for success.” Just like America.

A recent investigation exposed by CNN, The Center for Investigative Reporting and the Tampa Bay Times have found that there are dozens and dozens of charities that basically do next to nothing for the causes they raise money for.