In the fall of 2009, I was caring for my beloved Aunt Mary, who raised me and who was dying of the effects of her dementia, exacerbated by disastrous hip revision surgery at a local hospital. Around that time, the medical establishment had released new guidelines for breast cancer screening, stating that women who were young and healthy did not have to have a mammogram every year. The reaction was swift and merciless, with women’s groups denouncing the shift as jeopardizing women’s health.
I remember talking then to a nurse who was upset at the public outcry. Didn’t people understand this was a good thing? she wondered. I told her something I’ve often thought about: To win public opinion, you have to get out in front of a story. He who controls the narrative has the power.
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Read MoreNature may abhor a vacuum, but Wall Street really abhors uncertainty. As an investor, you can make money in wartime, and you can make money in peacetime. What is really tricky is to make money when one day you’re going to war and the next you’re not.
At the moment, we’re in a trade war – except when we’re not. The idea fluctuates not merely from day to day but from Trump Administration individual to individual on the same day. ...
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Read MoreChristianity teaches you that there’s no Resurrection without the Passion – no triumph without the suffering of the cross.
But then, Jesus never met President Donald J. Trumpet.
On Easter Sunday – which celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus, the central feast of Christianity, when God’s love for man conquered the grave – it was all doom and gloom from El Presidente as he once again proclaimed DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that buttresses those who came here illegally through no fault of their own, dead; and blamed two of his favorite whipping boys for it, Mexico and the Democrats. ...
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Read MoreSometimes, it’s hard to know where to begin – with the rage and frustration at what’s happening in this country, I mean.
I just filed my taxes, which have increased almost $5,000, thanks to no itemized deductions any longer, a cap on property tax deductions and the elimination of the deduction of state taxes from federal taxes. How again is the tax cut this supposed to benefit the middle class? Oh, that’s right...
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Read MoreThe day I thought would come the day after Election Day 2016 is finally here. I thought the stock market would tank after Donald J. Trumpet became president of the United States.
But it never happened. Instead, in a kind of financial Groundhog Day, the stock market went up and up and up. And Trumpet, who never misses a moment to inject himself into every story, continuously took credit for this.
But now he has started a trade war, and the Dow futures are down 400 points on the news that economic adviser Gary Cohn is the latest to bail on the White House. The bet is that the Dow will open Wednesday down 1,000 points. ...
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Read MoreThe nor’easter that raged this week from the Gulf of Mexico to Rhode Island isn’t the only storm that broke. There were gale force winds at the White House as Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” hit bookstores, with Wolff, an author-reporter known for playing fast and loose with the truth, and former kingmaker Steve Bannon portraying President Donald J. Trump as a baby who must be coddled by a staff that is alternately self-sacrificing and opportunistic. ...
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Read MoreStock markets are up as the world breathes a sigh of relief at the thought that Emmanuel Macron may be the next president of France.
On May 7, he and his En Marche! Party face off against Marine Le Pen and her National Front Party, having been the two top vote-getters in the first round. Basically, he’s the President Barack Obama of this story ...
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