The number of schools ranked highly in guides such as Barron's Profiles of American Colleges is increasing, without any evidence that these schools' instructional quality is also increasing. Applicants and their families should be wary of letting these rankings serve as the main criteria in their college decisions.

In the most recent Education Outlook, AEI scholar Rick Hess and Taryn Hochleitner explain how the inflation of college rankings contributes to a false sense of exclusivity and rising tuitions.

Low grading standards in university education departments will negatively affect the accumulation of skills for prospective teachers and contribute to a larger culture of low standards for educators.

Recent economic research suggests that colleges siphon off a significant portion of federal education aid rather than lowering costs to students

The reality of Ben Bernanke's press conference did not live up to the hype. The discussion was dry and undramatic and could only have been torpor-inducing to anyone outside the economics profession. In the pursuit of a notion of openness, the Fed will have lost its mystique.

In his latest Economic Outlook, AEI economist John Makin warns that while China's economy -- the world's second-largest -- shows every sign of continuing to overheat, the Chinese authorities have been hesitant to move aggressively enough to contain accelerating inflation.

The open letter signed by economists to Ben Bernanke urging him to discontinue the second round of QE2 was criticized widely and passionately as an attempt to politicize the Fed.

AEI's John Makin examines the consequences of German deflationary policies and Greece's probable exit from the eurozone in the latest Economic Outlook.