Day: October 26, 2025

The stock market is a vast network of activities where people buy and sell shares in publicly traded companies. These shares, also known as equities, represent fractional ownership in a company. People purchase stocks for a variety of reasons, including growing their money, getting income from dividends, or simply wanting to have a say in how a particular company is run. Share prices rise or fall over time for many reasons, including growth in the sales of a company’s goods and services and overall economic conditions.

People trade stocks on exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. Once a company lists shares, they become available to buy and sell through brokerage accounts. The trading process matches buyers and sellers through a system that maximizes fairness for both parties. The stock market may seem like a giant retail store, with buyers and sellers constantly negotiating and renegotiating prices in response to supply and demand.

When it comes to investing, the stock market is one of the best places to grow your money over time. But it’s not without its risks, which is why it’s important to understand how the market works and the lingo that goes with it.

To get started, look up the investments you’re interested in (you can do this through your broker or robo advisor). Next, decide on a dollar amount and how many shares you want to purchase. When you’re ready to make the trade, enter your order through an online platform and wait to see what happens!

As the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela deepens, calls have arisen to remove President Maduro from power. This is a classic example of regime change, a policy that involves one country covertly or overtly interfering in another nation’s government with the goal of removing its leadership and replacing it. These policies may include backing a military coup, supporting an uprising, or imposing sanctions that force the leader to step down.

The main objective of regime change is to replace the existing government with a friendlier one, either to spread democracy or advance economic interests. Unfortunately, these policies often fail. The reason is that in order for a government to be effective, it must have the support of or control over its people. When externally-imposed leaders face domestic audiences that want different things, the results are invariably negative. They drive a wedge between patrons and proteges or, even worse, between their own populations and the foreign governments they serve.

The use of regime change undermines the effectiveness of other tools that promote freedom and improve human rights around the world. It also harms American national security by strengthening the hand of peer competitors such as Russia and China, who are far more likely to view American threats to their sovereignty as a justification for intervening in the affairs of their own citizens.

Despite the failures, many policymakers continue to favor forcible regime change, perhaps because they focus on the desirability of their goals and neglect the full resources required to achieve them. They should instead consider the long-term aggregate effects of such actions, which more than offset any purported benefits.