People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation - much like building a mosque at Ground Zero.

In America, we believe that competition strengthens us.

Our government needs to adopt a pro-market agenda that doesn't pick winners and losers, but it invites competition and it levels the playing field for everyone.

The only place that the left hasn't placed the blame is on their agenda, so some advice for our friends on that side of the aisle: that's where you've gotta look because that's what got you into this mess.

We cannot watch another family lose everything - risking their lives and the lives of the first responders sent to rescue them - because the flood insurance program's seal of government approval fooled them into thinking they were safe. That's more than wrong: it's immoral.

We must remember that politics is more than a power game. The core of politics in my view is to serve our citizens, to serve our fellow human beings.

Taking care of a border security is one of the issues that government has to manage. It is not to be politicised to win votes and gain sympathy.

Even though I resigned as Papandreou's adviser early in 2006 and turned into his government's staunchest critic during his mishandling of the post-2009 Greek implosion, my public interventions in the debate on Greece and Europe have carried no whiff of Marxism.