Few recognize just how troubled this government agency really is. When measured against the accounting system used by private mortgage insurers, the FHA is deeply insolvent, with a capital shortfall of tens of billions of dollars. If it were a private firm, state regulators would immediately shut it down. 

The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in the fall of 2008 threw a sharp and critical light on the inadequacies of the world's system for resolving insolvent, globally active financial institutions; a debtor-selection system could ameliorate many of these inadequacies.

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.

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.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) uses lax accounting standards that obscure the fact that it is deeply insolvent, with a looming shortfall of tens of billions of dollars that American taxpayers will have to make up.

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

As of this summer, unemployment insurance trust funds in 30 states were insolvent and with poor long-term prospects in the labor market, these funds will remain a significant fiscal challenge in the future.

Many US municipalities and states are currently facing severe financial pressure. They have huge unfunded pension commitments, and recent forecasts of widespread defaults have resulted in a large sell-off of their bonds. This is not new. Financial history is full of instructive defaults by governments on their debt. Can these past crises teach us about what to do now?