Reform focused on sustainable lending would have FHA target a projected average claim rate of 5 per 100 insured loans under normal circumstances and 10 per 100 insured loans under stress circumstances.  This rate is about five times the normal default level for prime loans and about half the FHA's traditional default level under normal circumstances.

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).

Drug shortages, drug costs, the questionable quality of over-the-counter medicines: myriad issues have developed in pharmaceuticals in an era of enhanced regulatory efforts, rising healthcare costs and a global economy in which drug components are manufactured around the world.

The Committee believes that a properly structured CoCo requirement could have important incentive benefits that would nicely complement the new higher minimum capital requirements.

Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles are challenged with unrealities in handling the country's toughest economic truths.

There is no sound policy reason for the federal government to protect the safety and soundness of any financial institution that is not backed in some way by the government.

Alex Pollock examines the future of the current financial crisis as it relates to the housing industry.

Basel III proposes to tinker with the risk weights for assets, particularly emphasizing higher risk weights for assets in the trading book that also embody credit and counterparty risk.