In a recent letter, Martin Lobel describes as "intellectually bankrupt" our arguments against S. 940 and S. 2204, two recent bills that would have imposed unfavorable tax rules on five large oil companies that would not have applied to other taxpayers. Unfortunately, Lobel mischaracterizes our analysis of why the bills violate the rule of law.

In case you missed it: in a recent piece, mortgage finance and housing expert Edward Pinto writes that the 30-years mortgage could well be the cause of a new housing bubble.

Tax reform perpetually tops policymakers' lists for ways to grow the economy, but a generation has passed since the last successful effort, the Tax Reform Act of 1986. This is because of a simple political reality-it's hard. But not, I believe, impossible.

The Federal Reserve could give banks a big incentive to expand by setting negative interest rates on their excess reserves. 

Here we go again.  A series of uncoordinated government policies are once more setting up the U.S. banking system for major losses and possibly another financial crisis.  

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is not the unmitigated blessing Fannie and Freddie loyalists imply. It is a big reason U.S. mortgage markets are in such bad shape.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the most common way U.S. buyers finance a home purchase, isn’t the ideal instrument its supporters claim it to be.

Super committee members Sen. Pat Toomey and Rep. Jeb Hensarling are taking flak from some conservatives for proposing a deal including increases in "revenues." But it's worth taking a look at what Toomey and Hensarling actually were talking about. It may not matter now but could after 2012.