Keeping your rockstar talent and taking them seriously will help with longevity. Be as fiercein getting them as you are in keeping them.

Pity poor Washington. No doubt breaking the hearts of elected and appointed government officials, their staffs and hangers-on, a blog at the Center for Responsive Politics reports that the "influence industry appears to be contracting, and the trend continued in 2015."

The ongoing push to lift the ban on exports of U.S.-produced crude oil appears to be coming to a close, with Congress agreeing to a budget deal with a provision to end the decades-old embargo.

The financial crisis came primarily from a revolving-door dance between two groups: Wall Street itself, and the government regulators overseeing Wall Street. Over the last decade, these two groups have increasingly become the same people.

For investors who wish to assess the kinds of risk associated with their companies' political spending, Citizens United made corporate accountability and transparency even more essential.