The American economy is experiencing a crisis in long-term unemployment that has enormous human and economic costs.

Americans have for many years been paying the world's highest prices for pharmaceuticals--but is it more than their fair share?

President Barack Obama has been on a tour of college campuses touting proposals to lower student loan repayments for college graduates. He hopes to rekindle the enthusiasm of young voters, who in 2008 favored him over Sen. John McCain by more than two-to-one.

Ironically, these same young Americans...

Losing money is embarrassing. And an embarrassed Jamie Dimon publicly admitted that J.P. Morgan Chase goofed. Three senior executives lost their jobs as a result. But politicians and regulators in Washington are rushing to leverage the bank's misfortune for their own gain.

The recent improvement in payrolls and the unemployment rate are welcome news, but the plight of the long-term unemployed in the United States is considerable. The policies that have been executed since mid-2008 to foster an economic recovery have failed to deliver measurable results, and those most hurt by the current downturn are often the long-term unemployed.

Political dysfunction. Partisanship at record levels. Attack politics run amok. And public approval of Congress scraping the single digits (Sen. John McCain is fond of saying it's down to blood rlatives and paid staff).

I learned to appreciate the American free enterprise system by quitting a job in Spain.At age 19, I dropped out of school to pursue a career as a French horn player. After a few twists and turns, I wound up in the Barcelona Symphony, which was a Spanish...

There are many reasons to fear that 2012 will be a highly challenging year for the US economy. This is not only because the economic recovery will face considerable headwinds and could be hit by a European financial shock, but also because the US appears to have run out of fiscal and monetary policy space to counter any renewed economic downturn with an additional stimulus.