Four years after the onset of the financial crisis -- in March 2008 Bear Stearns was rescued from failure -- we still lack a clear understanding of the underlying causes. Hundreds of studies and books ...

I read a Washington Post column of yours just after Christmas—the one about the fairness dilemma and how Baby Boomers need to take a hit on Social Security and Medicare. You’ve been making these ...

If you've wondered why it's so hard to subdue budget deficits, you should consult a new study from the Congressional Budget Office called "Reducing the Deficit: Spending and Revenue Options" (free at ...

In America, we believe that anyone can grow up to be anything. You want to be president? Go for it. Among recent presidents, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Lyndon Johnson and Dwight Eisenhower all came ...

You are able to gift 5 more articles this month. Anyone can access the link you share with no account required. Learn more. WASHINGTON — At this point in time, the American economy — the source of ...

Warren Buffett has become a political prop -- and, perhaps, an object lesson in how business leaders, when they enter the political arena, are easily manipulated. Their efforts to "do good" are often ...

LET'S resume the debate over who should go to college. Some weeks ago, I wrote a column arguing that the "college for all" philosophy is a major blunder. ?The lowering of college entrance requirements ...

The logic of the economic recovery isn't working -- or, at any rate, not well. By that logic, over-borrowed Americans would repay loans and replenish depleted savings, creating a temporary drop in ...

Robert Samuelson, the Washington Post columnist who has provided so much material for this blog over the years, announced his retirement on Monday. I’ll take this opportunity to agree with a couple of ...

I worry about the future -- not mine, but that of my three children, all in their 20s. It is an axiom of American folklore that every generation should live better than its predecessors. But this is ...

It has always been hard to measure poverty, because poverty is as much a state of mind as a condition of material well-being. Still, we seem to have made a bad situation worse. Consider the Census ...