Despite frequent, dire warnings about the unsustainability of government budget deficits in the United States, Europe and Japan, investors are lining up to lend to some governments at very low interest rates.

Many people, observing the severe problems caused by Greece and other financially weak members of the European Union, wonder why the United States is not similarly afflicted. After all, the structures seem quite similar; the EU is united through a treaty into a single political grouping, while the U.S. is a union of states in a constitutional system. 

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.

We need better housing finance structures and ideas: The timing of the covered bond bill is certainly appropriate.

At a time when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in serious financial difficulties, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Treasury Department have both indicated that covered bonds might be an important new way to finance mortgages in the United States. Covered bonds are used extensively and successfully...

Even though the house prices on which debt was built have disappeared, the debt is still with us as a debt overhang, or better, hangover.

A federal mandate requires states to give an individual income tax exemption for interest income from Treasury and some other federal obligations, but that exemption should be repealed, allowing market forces to shape the allocation of Treasury securities across investors.

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.