President Barack Obama has been on a tour of college campuses touting proposals to lower student loan repayments for college graduates. He hopes to rekindle the enthusiasm of young voters, who in 2008 favored him over Sen. John McCain by more than two-to-one.

Ironically, these same young Americans...

What's needed is the strong arm of the European Central Bank to remove catastrophic risk from the marketplace without risking the bank's core mission of fighting inflation.

Over the past two decades, the share of working age Americans collecting disability insurance payments has doubled, from 2.3 to 4.6 percent of the population aged 25 to 64, with the largest increases coming among women.

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.

Since 2007, and apparently well below the radar, the safety net has expanded radically. The benefits available to those who do not work are sharply higher, and likely explain a good deal of the high unemployment we still see today. Staying home and collecting a government check has never been so attractive.

It is unlikely that increases in federal employee pension contributions or reductions in pension benefits for future federal retirees would lower total compensation below federal workers’ reservation wage, which represents the minimum pay at which a worker will accept a particular type of job.

Americans have the highest health spending on the planet. Why? Because they can afford to do so. What few people realize is that the U.S. has increased its standard of living vis-à-vis its biggest competitors despite rising health expenditures (figure 1.6c).

The current economic environment of low—virtually zero—interest rates has hit savers hard, but abruptly raising interest rates could harm economic growth and the housing market. Until the economy stabilizes and the Fed begins raising interest rates again, savers have few options: they can adjust their lifestyles, dip into their savings, or take on riskier investments such as gold and stocks.