It ranks among the biggest forecasting errors ever. Back in 2001, the Congressional Budget Office projected federal budget surpluses of $5.6 trillion for 2002-2011. Instead we got $6.1 trillion of ...

Robert Samuelson, the Washington Post columnist who has provided so much material for this blog over the years, announced his retirement on Monday. I’ll take this opportunity to agree with a couple of ...

Four years after the onset of the financial crisis -- in March 2008 Bear Stearns was rescued from failure -- we still lack a clear understanding of the underlying causes. Hundreds of studies and books ...

Warren Buffett has become a political prop -- and, perhaps, an object lesson in how business leaders, when they enter the political arena, are easily manipulated. Their efforts to "do good" are often ...

I read a Washington Post column of yours just after Christmas—the one about the fairness dilemma and how Baby Boomers need to take a hit on Social Security and Medicare. You’ve been making these ...

WASHINGTON -- The latest study from Harvard economists Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff provides a sobering reminder of how much the stumbling economic recovery may be a hostage to history. They are the ...

I worry about the future -- not mine, but that of my three children, all in their 20s. It is an axiom of American folklore that every generation should live better than its predecessors. But this is ...

LET'S resume the debate over who should go to college. Some weeks ago, I wrote a column arguing that the "college for all" philosophy is a major blunder. ?The lowering of college entrance requirements ...

It's a teachable moment, but what's the right lesson? Already, the $2 billion-plus trading debacle at JPMorgan Chase has inspired a powerful storyline. Nothing has changed since the financial crisis, ...