Bombay: wealthy owe lives to hotel's cummerbund heroes  —  Staff shielded guests from gunmen's bullets  —  They were heroes in cummerbunds and overalls.  The staff of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel saved hundreds of wealthy guests as heavily armed gunmen roamed the building, firing indiscriminately …

Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death by Customers  —  A Wal-Mart employee in suburban New York died after being trampled by a crush of shoppers who tore down the front doors and thronged into the store early Friday morning, turning the annual rite of post-Thanksgiving bargain hunting into a frenzy.

Adviser Who Insulted Clinton Has Role in Transition  —  Samantha Power, the Harvard professor who was forced to resign from Barack Obama's presidential campaign last spring after calling Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton “a monster,” is now advising the president-elect on transition matters relating …

Bush Weighs In on His Legacy  —  As the clock ticks down on his days in the White House, President George W. Bush is taking part in one of his last presidential rituals — helping to shape the perception of his years in office.  —  In an interview conducted earlier this month by his sister …

Rubin, Under Fire, Defends His Role at Citi  —  ‘Nobody Was Prepared’ for Crisis of '08  —  Under fire for his role in the near-collapse of Citigroup Inc., Robert Rubin said its problems were due to the buckling financial system, not its own mistakes, and that his role was peripheral …

American Muslims Justify, Equivocate Mumbai Massacre [UPDATED, Bumped]  —  Samir Khan emerges from his parents' house in Charlotte, NC  —  Our nemesis Samir Khan [aka, “inshallahshaheed"] over at the “Ignored Puzzle Pieces of Knowledge” is talking about the Mumbai massacre over at this blog.

Was the Great Depression a monetary phenomenon?  —  Sins of omission?  —  Has anyone else noticed that the current crisis sheds light on one of the great controversies of economic history?  —  A central theme of Keynes's General Theory was the impotence of monetary policy in depression-type conditions.

Mr. Obama, enjoy the media adulation while you can  —  Commentary: President-elect should remember that what goes up must come down  —  This is an update to fix a typographical error.  —  NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — I'm starting to feel a little guilty about the media's treatment …