The need for pension reform is obvious and immediate: Lots of companies have defaulted on their defined-benefit pension plans, and for many others, the clock is ticking on woefully underfunded liabilities.

The SEC should abandon its effort to impose a trade-through rule. Instead, the SEC should approve the NYSE's so-called hybrid plan, which will enhance competition among market centers.

Should reforms that would allow social security assets to be invested in the stock market take the form of collective investment for the social security trust fund?

Investors who are growing more concerned about inflation at last have a way to protect themselves against it, but--incredibly--they're ignoring it.

As a guy who ridicules the proliferation of "10 Best" lists, I risk being called a hypocrite for proffering my own every January. But there's a difference. This is a list not of the best mutual funds for the year ahead, but of some very good funds that should shine...

How important are hedge funds to America's capital markets?

The estate-tax concept, as one of society's major ways to target the rich and to prevent the accumulation of most of its wealth in a few hands, has been a venerable one in America.

The estate tax currently touches only one bequest in fifty, but unless the law is changed, in coming decades the tax will affect the legacies of a significant percentage of middle-class Americans.