• Obama’s jobs speech: Good plan, good vision, good politics 
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Capitalism  | Obama’s account of America’s onetime rise to the summit of world economies, and the role that public investment (beginning with Lincoln) played in that rise, laid the basis for the campaign he hopes to run next year, a campaign in which he will contrast his vision for economic revival with the Republicans’ Ayn-Randian mumbo-jumbo. Based on his performance tonight, and the performance of the Republican field in last night’s debate in California, Obama has the more compelling and plausible message.  

• Would you give up your golden parachute? 
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I don't think I'd have the stomach to turn down $20 million -- especially if I was legally entitled to it. But that's apparently what Nolan D. Archibald did. The long-time CEO of toolmaker Black & Decker declined the $20 million he is due as a result of a merger between his company and rival Stanley Works. [....] He is also entitled to keep his $35.5 million pension. And this doesn't include the value of his stock options. This is -- and I'm trying to be refined here -- a boatload of money, and more than enough to keep someone in bright and shiny new handtools for the rest of his or her life. Still, the $64,000 question remains: What was he thinking turning down millions legally owed to him? Hasn't this guy read Ayn Rand?