It must be awfully frustrating to get a small raise at work and then have it all eaten by a higher cost of commuting.

We do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system.

In fact, the world needs more nerds.

A collapse in U.S. stock prices certainly would cause a lot of white knuckles on Wall Street. But what effect would it have on the broader U.S. economy? If Wall Street crashes, does Main Street follow? Not necessarily.

The financial crisis appears to be mostly behind us, and the economy seems to have stabilized and is expanding again.

The more important reason is that the research itself provides an important long-run perspective on the issues that we face on a day-to-day basis.

The economist John Maynard Keynes said that in the long run, we are all dead. If he were around today he might say that, in the long run, we are all on Social Security and Medicare.