The worst part about sequestration is that it would take effect in January 2013 — at the start of calendar year 2013, but three months into the fiscal year. Without the ability to plan in advance at the Pentagon, everything would go to the chopping block in the middle of the annual budget cycle. 

The conventional ways of cataloguing and reporting health spending significantly understate the government share of health spending.

According to the new calculations of the Social Security Trustees’ 2012 Report, Social Security’s future costs are a lot bigger than its future income.

More troubling than WikiLeaks' latest revelation of US secrets is the Obama administration's weak, wrong-headed and erratic response. Clinton's inability to understand WikiLeaks' obsession with causing harm to the US is a major reason why the Obama administration has done little or nothing in response.

If International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn's proposal to increase the IMF's war chest by $250 billion is passed, it will likely prolong the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis.

The banking industry suffered credit crises in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. An unavoidable conclusion is that its loan loss reserves were in all cases too small. 

The just-passed health care reform bill will inflict more damage on an already-weakened American economy and will cause bigger deficits and higher taxes.

Some consumers and businesses might see a little extra cash this summer as a result of the 2010 health care law. The Kaiser Family Foundation recently reported an estimated $1.3 billion in rebates will be delivered from health insurers who spent more than the law allotted on administrative expenses and profits.