Columns

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama concur on how to deal with the politics of gay marriage: Keep it below the radar.

The word “breakthrough” has been uttered hopefully in anticipation of the meeting May 23 in Baghdad of officials from six world powers and Iran to resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program. A positive meeting last month in Istanbul kindled a sense of momentum.

China’s $3.3 trillion of currency reserves are a nice thing to have when you want to polish your image. Even if money can’t buy you love, it sure can buy lots of positive buzz.

“Anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned,” said President Barack Obama in his 2012 State of the Union address, “doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”

The scarlet letter these days is still an A, but it isn’t A for adultery. It is A for austerity.

One by one, European nations are letting their voices be heard, tossing out the party in power and voting in those who, in some cases, have a more radical agenda or, in others, are just willing to say “no” to the status quo. A bas l’austerite! Down with austerity! Up with growth!

Big business, we keep being told, has been so hampered by regulatory uncertainty over the past few years, it has been reluctant to hire workers.

The minute Senator Rob Portman, the Republican from Ohio who helped Mitt Romney win his state’s primary, walked into the room, I knew that he would be the Republican vice presidential candidate.

Don’t worry your pretty little heads, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Financial Officer Douglas Braunstein seemed to assure listeners on the bank’s quarterly earnings conference call last month. Regulators knew everything JPMorgan’s chief investment office was doing, he said.

The chaos in Greece has resumed and a new election that nobody expects to resolve anything looms. Exasperated European Union officials have begun openly discussing the country’s exit from the euro currency system. This is a grave mistake. Greece’s exit would be no less catastrophic than when the EU called it unthinkable -- and not just for Greece.