Armstrong Williams

WILLIAMS: Will Congress show true leadership and grit?

It has been several weeks since lawmakers took this country to the precipice of financial ruin, seemingly reveled in their fleeting power to do so, and then gingerly backed us all away.

August 28, 2011

WILLIAMS: Four keys to unlocking wealth potential

There are literally hundreds of impediments that prevent people from building wealth. Whether they are particularly complex (misreading the stock market) or extremely simple (miscalculating your budget), these impediments can literally keep you and your family from financial stability.

August 21, 2011

WILLIAMS: Debt-ceiling deal a step in the right direction

The recent government debt-reduction deal hammered out in high drama was not just a riveting piece of political theater. It represented the almost paralyzing ambivalence of the American people in deciding just what must be done and what must be sacrificed in order to get us out of debt and back on the road to prosperity.

August 14, 2011

WILLIAMS: The other things

I can't help but think that the "original sin" in getting us to where we are now (after being on the brink of last week's limitation on borrowing - it was NOT a default date, as there would have been plenty of money to pay the Treasurys that are due - the real issue is that without further borrowing, it is the other things the government does that it won't have the money to do) is this: Why didn't President Obama use the vast power of writing the budget to set his priorities in this coming fight?

August 7, 2011

WILLIAMS: Brinkmanship poker

If you've been living in the United States during the past three months and you're not aware of this "debt crisis" everyone inside the Beltway is talking about, then you're living under a rock.

July 31, 2011

WILLIAMS: Murdoch’s ambition has its benefits

Amid the crying of foul and media hype surrounding Rupert Murdoch's News of the World scandal, a fundamental fact seems to have been lost. That is, before Mr. Murdoch came along and almost single-handedly saved it, the newspaper industry as we know it was dying an ignominious death.

July 24, 2011

WILLIAMS: South Sudan’s new dawn reveals a still-fractured landscape

The streets of Juba, South Sudan's capital, were filled with jubilation this month as the world's newest nation formally declared its independence after a decades-long war that claimed more than 2 million lives.

July 17, 2011

WILLIAMS: Let’s shrink big government, big banks

As we recover from the celebration of our national independence, many in America are taking time to consider what makes America a truly exceptional place. Some point to our world-leading economy. Others revere our beautiful expanse of rivers, lakes, mountains, forests and plains. But to me, what makes America truly great is our system of government.

July 10, 2011

WILLIAMS: Harnessing the idle mind

It almost goes without saying that the human brain is a remarkable computing machine.

July 3, 2011

WILLIAMS: Compromise cannot succeed without courage

It's tempting to simplify and view Washington, D.C., as the lair of three different types of people — Democrats, Republicans and, now, the ever-growing tea party faithful.

June 26, 2011

WILLIAMS: From bedroom to front page, sex, lies and Twitter

It seems that across the board, and irrespective of political affiliation, men have failed at exhibiting the better part of valor when it comes to sex.

June 19, 2011

WILLIAMS: The man John Edwards wished he was

I've just finished speaking with many of my colleagues and family members who live and work in the Carolinas, where a few reside in Raleigh. Tobacco Road is hot these days, but not just because of the heat wave. Locals in the Research Triangle specifically, and in North Carolina generally, are hopping mad over the federal indictment of their native son, former Sen. John Edwards.

June 12, 2011

WILLIAMS: With immigration reform, the consumer matters

The recent Supreme Court ruling in Chamber of Commerce vs. Whiting highlights a fundamental and before now underappreciated factor in the immigration debate: Immigrants come here illegally because they know that U.S. companies will hire them.

June 5, 2011

WILLIAMS: The nerdification of America

Back in the "good ole days," you didn't need a fancy college degree to make something of yourself. All you needed to achieve wealth was a willingness to work hard and have a spark of inventiveness.

May 22, 2011

WILLIAMS: Gresham’s law

Many discussions in media, global politics, entertainment and the world of finance and economics remind me of Gresham's law, which states that "bad money drives out good money."

May 15, 2011

WILLIAMS: Pakistan is an ally we can’t afford to lose

Pretty soon Congress will face one of, if not the toughest votes of this legislative session — the decision on whether to raise our nation's debt ceiling. It is perhaps the defining moment of nearly 87 new Republican freshmen, along with dozens of others (including Democrats) who could lose their jobs come next November should they vote the wrong way.

May 8, 2011

WILLIAMS: 2012 election is all about Obama’s failed policies

The media is gearing up full throttle to tease and manipulate the public again with the early favorites leading up to the 2012 presidential election. At the inception of the 2008 election season, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama wasn't a blip or an afterthought in the minds of the American people as someone who had a snowball's chance in purgatory of capturing the coveted prize of the White House.

May 1, 2011

WILLIAMS: Is the debt ceiling a road to serfdom or path to erudition?

In the midst of a season that has provided riveting political theater the budget extension impasse and the impending battle over raising the debt ceiling a bright ideological line has emerged between the two major political parties. It is not about whether we must reduce our debt (both sides ostensibly agree that we must), but about where those cuts should come from.

April 24, 2011

WILLIAMS: What record haul in Libyan assets means for U.S.

There's something distinctly fishy about the Treasury Department's lightning-fast and allegedly "surprise" discovery of more than $30 billion in Libyan government assets stored in U.S. banks.

April 17, 2011