Are the markets rigged? Is the system a con? The disturbing truth about how the public is being gamed.

John Zmirak

The intrepid investigative journalist and author Michael Lewis is burning up the headlines and sparking shouting matches on financial TV programs with his new book Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt.  In it, Lewis addresses the sneaking suspicion that many Americans have about the stock market: that it is rigged, that certain insiders have access to information that lets them get rich at the expense of everyone else.  And Lewis’ verdict is: Guilty as Charged.

Read more at Aleteia

By Christopher White

Last week marked the 28th birthday of Baby M, the child who was born from the surrogate pregnancy arrangement between Mary Beth Whitehead who was paid to use her eggs and womb and William Stern’s sperm to give birth to a child for Stern and his infertile wife, Elizabeth. After delivery, Whitehead decided that she was too emotionally attached to the child and refused to surrender the child. This soon sparked a legal battle over the custody of the child that gripped the entire country. While the New Jersey Supreme Court ultimately granted custody to Stern, it also ruled paid surrogacy contracts illegal and banned the practice in the state. In 2012 the New Jersey State legislature tried to reverse the ban, but Governor Chris Christie later vetoed the bill citing “the profound change in the traditional beginnings of the family that this bill will enact.”

Read more at Forbes

By Ryan Olson

In 2014, the Index of Economic Freedom, co-published by The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation, celebrates its 20th anniversary. For two decades, the Index, by cataloguing economic policy developments of the globe, has served as a beacon for people around the world who recognize enhanced economic liberty and individual opportunity as the surest path to greater prosperity.

Read more at the Heritage Foundation

Americans celebrate innovation, a term that the dictionary says stems from the Latin verb innovare—to “make new.” We all sense that a wave of innovations—mobile internet, robots, artificial intelligence, driverless cars—will transform the way we live and work. Innovators are admired for their game-changing insights that upend old ways of doing business, and create economic opportunities.

Read more at Bloomberg Business Week

Shareholders Drive Changes in Policies Ranging From Rain Forests to Human Rights

By EMILY CHASAN

Shareholders are driving changes in corporate policies and disclosures unthinkable a decade ago, on issues ranging from protecting rain forests to human rights. Even the threat of a proxy vote can be enough to bring company executives to the negotiating table.

So far this year, environmental and social issues have accounted for 56% of shareholder proposals, representing a majority for the first time, according to accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP. That is up from about 40% in the previous two years, and means…

Read more at the Wall Street Journal

By Cardinal Timothy Dolan

Francis knows that the answer to problems with the free market isn’t government control.

Pope Francis met with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other U.N. officials at the Vatican on May 9. From media reports, one might think that the only thing on the pope’s mind was government redistribution of property, as if he were denouncing capitalism and endorsing some form of socialism. This is unfortunate, because it overlooks the principal focus of Pope Francis ‘ economic teaching—that economic and social activity must be based on the virtues of compassion and generosity.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal

Jane Wells | @janewells

Jordan Belfort is back.

Now that “The Wolf of Wall Street” is a certified hit, the man whose life the film is based on is back selling something. This time, however, it’s all legal.

Belfort is selling a program on how to be a successful salesperson using “ethical persuasion.” “Success in the absence of ethics … is failure, it’s not success at all,” Belfort said in a free webinar Wednesday.

Read more at CNBC

“The Kudlow Report” will end its run this month, CNBC said on Friday, with host Larry Kudlow moving into a senior contributor role for the network.

Read More at CNBC

Prominent Global Investment Professional And Business Expert To Lead Independent Counsel to the President, Congress, and the U.S. Small Business Administration

Washington, DC – President Obama has announced his intent to appoint Carla Harris to be the Chair of the National Women’s Business Council (NWBC).

Read more at the National Women’s Business Council

By John L. Allen Jr.| GLOBE STAFF

A new way of doing the Vatican’s business, and other topics in church life: Elder care, a field hospital in Ukraine, and . . . the end of history?

Read more at the Boston Globe