From the perspective of the corporate profit and loss statement, a trading loss is one expense item in the context of all revenues and expenses. So $2 billion should be compared to the bank's $26.7 billion in pretax profits for 2011, suggesting a reduction of something less than 10 percent in annual profit.

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.

The Dodd-Frank legislation has many problems and omissions, and much is still uncertain about implementation. But the new liquidation authority provides for the possibility of making it so that future crises do not involve the bailouts of creditors that truly embodied the problem of having banks that are too big to fail.

If a debt cannot be paid, it will not be paid—at least not paid in full. Could Social Security’s debt be settled at a discount by voluntary transactions with its creditors, namely American citizens?

Portugal could avoid Greece's horrible fate if it were to draw the right lessons from the Greek experience.

A system that lets participants choose between the traditional system and a lower-cost settlement paid in inflation-adjusted Treasuries could ensure the program's solvency.

Three considerations make it likely that Greece, Ireland and Portugal will choose to default before the establishment of the European Stability Mechanism in 2013

Ever since its founding in 1948, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has maintained an aggressive and bellicose international security posture. Today, fully two decades after the end of the Cold War, North Korea's external defense and security policies look arguably more extreme and anomalous than ever.