Sorry, that first line is supposed to read "you're probably right, Gordan."

You're probably Gordan. But if we stopped worrying about the abortion issue, even more people would flock to the conservative cause. Oh wait, if we stopped fighting so hard for gun rights, more people would join the party. If we just let gays get married (Really? What harm would it do?) even more would come. Of course, taken to its ultimate end, we could all just become Democrat-Socialists and the world would be hunky-dory.

My question, If Zuckerberg, Facebook and Morgan Stanley, purposefully, jacked up the introductory price of Facebook stock, knowing the company was not worth that much, knowing the price would almost immediately plummet once it was on the market, then promptly sold their stock and pocketed the profits... Did they commit a crime? Is this some kind of insider trading?

First idea, go back to an old idea that they got rid of. Stop banks from growing so large. Don't allow a "National" bank. A bank can have branches in the state it is headquartered and any state that that state touches. It keeps banks from growing so large, becoming so important that a failure at the bank can't slow down or destroy the entire American economy.

If the company they invested in is successful, great. The company can pay back the money Bain gave them, plus the... lets call it interest, shall we? That is due on that investment. If the company doesn't do well, if the company fails, goes broke, goes out of business, then yes, Bain comes in, maybe takes over, tries to fix things or sells off the companies assets and takes back what they're owed. What exactly is so horrible about this? Maybe it's a little heartless but people go into business, as discussed earlier, to MAKE MONEY!

If not for investment businesses, a lot of start-ups never would and a lot of companies in trouble would just go out of business. The point of any business is to make money. This is common sense. If you're not in it to make money, you're a charity. We have charities in the US. Romney gives to charities. Bain was not, and is not, a charity. They do not GIVE Away money. They give money to a person or company to help them get started, reorganize, restructure, expand or just get a little out of the hole. Naturally, Bain would want this money, plus a little extra, paid back to them at some point, in some way.

We, the United States, have been fiddling in other nation's politics for 70 years. During the Cold War, we had, presumably, sound, logical reasons for doing this. The world is unsettled because, for the last 70 to 100 years, everyone has been doing what they're told. All of a sudden, largely thanks to the collapse of the Soviet Union, everyone feels a little safer now. Let's practice a touch of isolationism and call it minding our own business. Let things settle down. Yes, there are going to be wars, and no, not all of them will end the way we want but, let the world's people, and their governments, get where they want to be... within reason of course.

Wouldn't it be better to just tell Putin, we don't like how you're treating your people but we, the United States, are going to leave you alone. Tell the same thing to the Chinese, as long as they leave Taiwan alone, and maybe even pump our own oil, stop buying from the middle east and, if not end our relationships there, at least severely limit our contact with that part of the world, except for Israel (Just park a carrier battle group off the west coast and let it be known that its sole purpose is to give aide to Israel). I wouldn't even object to limiting immigration into the United States from the middle east. The US and Europe are already beginning to face a crisis as Islamists try and subvert our ways and economies.

"What this revolution needs is a great deal more capitalism… and some soap. And perhaps a high-powered management consultant." Wouldn't that make them Tea Partiers? :)

And Apple paid their taxes. So why are they now being called "Sidesteppers" by the New York Times, the supposed paper of record? When/if you bought a house, didn't you take your deduction? If/when you donated to charity, didn't you take your deduction? All perfectly legal, just like Apple, but no we're supposed be mad at Apple for taking their legal deductions? I don't think so. You are destroying your own argument, canetoad.