In a new book entitled “Financing Failure: A Century of Bailouts,” Vern McKinley provides the most detailed account yet of the government’s decision-making process during these momentous events.

Here’s the problem: The president never defines what he means by “fair.” And this is for a simple reason: his definition is simply not recognizable to most Americans.

State bankruptcy must serve to break the stranglehold of public-sector unions over state politics and budgets; help restore the federal government's precommitment against bailing out states; and advance, rather than distract from, the far more fundamental federalism reforms that will be required over the coming years.

It is five years since the 2006 peak of the great housing bubble and time to re-state the repetitive lessons of financial history. Our recent financial adventures are memorable, but will they be sufficiently remembered?

Greve argues that a state bankruptcy option would represent a step towards restoring fiscal sanity--as long as it succeeds in breaking the stranglehold of public-sector unions over state politics and budgets.

The states' fiscal crisis is structural, not cyclical. Real recovery and reform will require drastic changes to our federal architecture.