You see this all the time in print: liberals pointing out how unpopular benefit cuts are, conservatives pointing out that no one wants their taxes increased. But of course, the correct question is “Compared to what?” Do people want their Social Security benefits enough to pay another 10% of their income into the program? Do they hate tax increases enough to give up Medicare? I’m pretty sure that the final budget deal will involve some of each of the hated choices. Even if the public were willing to tolerate an all-cuts or all-hikes solution, the deal will have to be cut with an opposition party that will not give up so easily.

My guess is that it is a far more important driver of inequality than any government policy or lack thereof.

I agree with most of the tenets of John Locke, but he reaches his conclusion based on “Natural Law“. This is a vague concept loosely tied to theological trends, which strikes me as no more rigorous than the divine right of kings. This has long troubled me. But Locke’s analysis takes on a whole new dimension when “natural law” can be attributed to our genetic evolution. Maybe Natural Law really is “natural law”!?!

So much of the conversation by climate-change hawks takes place as if the demonstration of the existence of a cost is sufficient to prove that that cost must be reduced. And, too, so much of that same conversation takes place as if the political authorities to be charged with reducing this cost will act both wisely and in the public interest.

Inquiring minds are likely asking “Why does Greece insist it will not restructure?” The answer is simple: Greek public pension plans are loaded with Greek sovereign debt garbage. A restructuring would shatter the values of those plans and the expected payouts to the pensioners. However, the market does not care what Greek or IMF officials think. Nor does the market care about those pension plans. A yield of 20.34% on the 2-year government bond is proof enough. This is what happens when the market takes matters into its own hands.

The FDIC has released a document that purports to show how it could have successfully resolved Lehman Brothers using its new Title II resolution authority granted under Dodd Frank. All I can say is that this is an interesting piece of creative writing. The Lehman counterfactual rests on a series of assumptions, which as I will discuss shortly, look pretty questionable.

Even as the Madison teachers union was insisting that its four-day strike in February, a chance for members to go shout at the Capitol, was spontaneous action by teachers, it was phoning those teachers to help them plan their spontaneity, reports the MacIver Institute.