Personal finances of the contenders.

• Author: Lueders, Bill
• Position: SMOKING GUN - Brief article

Through law and tradition, candidates for President face a high level of disclosure regarding their personal finances. The records are often instructive when pondering what they have to say. Here are some examples.

Paid to Praise

Ben Carson, on a book tour stop at the Richard Nixon library in October, delivered this bromide in support of Fox News: "Even if all the media tries to shut you down--which they have tried very much to do with me ... they can't, because the good Lord has provided me with mechanisms like my syndicated column and like Fox News. We'd be Cuba if there were no Fox News."

Bank Buster

Democratic contender Hillary Clinton, in an October 27 appearance on The Late Show with...