The confidence is really driven by the woman - whether she can have the confidence that there will be enough earning or income to finance all the domestic spending - but also by the middle-income class which for many Asian countries has become the growth power for the economy.

It is a sound principle of finance and a still sounder principle of government that those who have the duty of expending the revenue of a country should also be saddled with the responsibility of levying and providing it.

Small- and medium-sized businesses need access to a diverse range of finance options including non-bank lending. These new forms of finance are still small in scale today but they should over time bring additional choice and greater competition to the lending market.

It is incumbent upon each of us to improve spending and savings practices to ensure our own individual financial security and preserve the collective economic well-being of our great society.

Nothing drew me to the film business. I was propelled by the fear and anxiety of Vietnam. I had been drafted into the Marines. My brother was already serving in Vietnam. I bought if you will a stay of execution - both literally and figuratively - and went on to graduate school of business from the law school that I was attending.

The fear of the never-ending onslaught of gizmos and gadgets is nothing new. The radio the telephone Facebook - each of these inventions changed the world. Each of them scared the heck out of an older generation. And each of them was invented by people who were in their 20s.

When the entertainers of the Right aren't declaring their disgust with President Obama for groveling before foreign potentates they're pretending to fear him as a left-wing thug an exemplar of what they call 'the Chicago way.'

I get so nervous on stage I can't help but talk. I try. I try telling my brain: stop sending words to the mouth. But I get nervous and turn into my grandma. Behind the eyes it's pure fear. I find it difficult to believe I'm going to be able to deliver.

Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.

I am convinced that it is not the fear of death of our lives ending that haunts our sleep so much as the fear... that as far as the world is concerned we might as well never have lived.