But we need a user’s manual for capitalism — one that somehow makes frighteningly evident the risks inherent in a lack of boundaries and that introduces an element of humility to the abilities we have to control and use information.

Highprice-to-earnings ratios are a reflection of the failure of Generally Accepted Accounting Principlesas a system of financial reporting in the knowledge economy.

At this AEI book forum, Jeffrey Friedman will present his book’s arguments, followed by comments from AEI’s Peter Wallison and Alex Pollock and a general discussion.

Has the Fed lived up to reasonable expectations of what the top central bank can and should do? Or are our expectations of its superior knowledge and insight into future trends and risks naïve and unreasonable? What should the Fed do or not do now? Our expert panel debates these and other issues.

If financial stability was at the top of the central banks' agenda by 1999, one can reasonably wonder what they were doing about it from 1999 to 2007.

The Dodd-Frank Act in general, and in particular its favorite child, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, represent sharp political disputes, as now with bypassing the Senate by the "recess" appointment of its director. But more fundamentally, they represent clashing political philosophies.

The trade policies that President Obama outlined in his State of the Union Address undermine the strength of America's economy, and are the wrong way to react to the changing nature of trade.

A century from now, observers may well identify the last months of 2011 as the start of higher education’s Great Disruption.