Either the Navy is retiring these ships too early or its lifecycle estimates are hopelessly optimistic. But service leaders cannot have it both ways. Similarly, the administration cannot realistically “pivot” to Asia—a region defined by the “tyranny of distance”—and cut the fleet at the same time.

AEI resident scholar Mackenzie Eaglen was testifying Wednesday to the U.S. House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, in which she explained that the 2013 long-term shipbuilding plan "does not accurately portray the forces or funding necessary to execute the administration’s strategy."

In case you missed it: in a recent piece, mortgage finance and housing expert Edward Pinto writes that the 30-years mortgage could well be the cause of a new housing bubble.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the most common way U.S. buyers finance a home purchase, isn’t the ideal instrument its supporters claim it to be.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is not the unmitigated blessing Fannie and Freddie loyalists imply. It is a big reason U.S. mortgage markets are in such bad shape.

History has shown--and simple economics would anticipate--that a government subsidy for a freely prepayable 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is not good policy.

Americans lose when the government guarantees 30-year-fixed-rate mortgages.

There's nothing wrong with these loans, but there's no good policy reason why taxpayers should subsidize them.