the State of the Union Address. (Photo: Chuck Kennedy / White House)Mr. President, there has never been any doubt you are a brilliant orator. And it is also clear that nothing you have said will cause the Republicans in the Senate to break their stranglehold on progress, using threats of filibusters to destroy the majority rule that is the hallmark of every other democracy in the world. People are asking for results they can understand.

Your First Year

You accurately articulated your accomplishments in your State of the Union address, but what's striking is that in light of them, the American public has lost faith. If you had achieved only the economic turnaround that prevented the recession from turning into a calamity greater than the Great Depression, that alone would have put you in the history books and should have been enough for people to understand what an extraordinary job you have been doing.  read more »

I am not a yoga person, which is why I need yoga. Too bad my best efforts to exercise my willpower long enough to attend a yoga class have culminated in trips to the bodega (formerly trips to the bar) to reward myself on my way home, undoing my efforts and then some. Yoga does not come naturally to me. I am not flexible, I cannot relax regardless of how many deep breaths I enlist to sooth me, nor do I feel at one with the concept of spandex yoga attire at the moment.

I have always aspired to be a yoga person, but since my new year's resolution was to stop doing things that I hate to do because I believe they will pay off one day, I had finally crossed yoga off of my to-do list.  read more »

The PGA Tour season's not even a month old, and we've already got our first major controversy. Phil Mickelson has played exactly 18 holes, and he's smack-dab in the middle of it.

At issue are new club groove rules that went into effect on Jan. 1. Long story short: golfers were using specially-cut grooves on their clubs to spin the ball more sharply and play more effectively out of the rough; the penalty for putting a shot into the rough was thus minimized. So the USGA and the Royal & Ancient, two of golf's major governing bodies, decreed that such grooves were illegal and could not be used on Tour starting this year. (For more detail, check our handy guide to the new rules right here.)

However, golfers are expert at wiggling their way out of tough situations, and they discovered that a lawsuit Ping filed against the PGA Tour and the USGA way back in 1993 exempted wedges made before 1990 from the new rules. (Don't try to figure it out, just accept it.) Lo and behold, what should turn up in the bags of golfers like John Daly and Phil Mickelson but some vintage Ping Eye 2 wedges, clubs that are old enough to legally drink.  read more »

By Keith Fitz-Gerald, Chief Investment Strategist, Money Morning
Editor's Note:Money Morning Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald's new book is - "Fiscal Hangover"

When it comes to global manufacturing, Mexico is quickly emerging as the “new” China.

According to corporate consultant Alix Partners, Mexico has leapfrogged China to be ranked as the cheapest country in the world for companies looking to manufacture products for the U.S. market. India is now No. 2, followed by China and then Brazil. In fact, Mexico’s cost advantages and has become so cheap that even Chinese companies are moving there to capitalize on the trade advantages that come from geographic proximity.  read more »

By now, your New Year's resolutions made in the euphoria of the first days of the decade will have shaken out. The new "exercise routine", "diet regime", "watch less TV", "limit time on the internet", and "stop smoking" resolutions may have already fallen by the wayside. The ones that count will keep holding.

We are still in January. What is it that you would really like to improve or change in your life? What would you like to see change in our world? And how would you like to be part of that change? How will you be inspiring yourself this year?  read more »

Photo: ImageMD; Edited: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u tIn Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations should be treated the same as "natural persons", i.e. humans. Well, in that case, expect the Supreme Court to next rule that Wal-Mart can run for President.

The ruling, which junks federal laws that now bar corporations from stuffing campaign coffers, will not, as progressives fear, cause an avalanche of corporate cash into politics. Sadly, that's already happened: we have been snowed under by tens of millions of dollars given through corporate PACs and "bundling" of individual contributions from corporate pay-rollers.

The Court's decision is far, far more dangerous to U.S. democracy. Think: Manchurian candidates.  read more »