The Federal Reserve is prone to major and minor mistakes because it is affected by political pressure.

Here is another good news/bad news column about the 112th Congress.

In an upcoming piece, AEI's Kevin Hassett highlights a new unique index of policy uncertainty which was developed in a path-breaking paper by Stanford economists Scott R. Baker and Nicholas Bloom along with AEI Visiting Scholar and University of Chicago economist Steve Davis. Among...

On April 13, 2012, the US Department of the Treasury released new cost estimates for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Looking principally at actual and projected contractual cash flows, the document concludes that: "Overall, the government is now expected to at least break even on its financial stability programs and may realize a positive return." 

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.

Market participants do not appreciate the changes made by the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve does not like applying difficult lessons from textbooks.

Elizabeth Warren is again at the center of a political controversy. Despite her insistence that she is part Cherokee, based upon “family lore” and her observation that some in her family had “high cheekbones like all the Indians do,” she has failed to produce any concrete evidence to substantiate her claim.

In a just-published piece in Tax Notes, AEI economists Kevin Hassett and Alan Viard explain how targeted tax increases on big oil companies pose significant risks to the economy.