Social Security is a social insurance program - it is not designed to be the same thing as a 401(k).

Simple doesn't mean stupid. Thinking that it does, does.

[I]n America, at least, we have a pretty good record for behaving in a fiscally responsible fashion, with one exception - namely, the fiscal irresponsibility that prevails when, and only when, hard-line conservatives are in power.

People who are complaining about the Fed are people who've been predicting runaway inflation for five and six years, and it hasn't happened.

People respond to incentives. If unemployment becomes more attractive because of the unemployment benefit, some unemployed workers may no longer try to find a job or may not try to find one as quickly as they would without the benefit.

When stock prices are rising, it's called ''momentum investing''; when they are falling, it's called ''panic.''

One way in which Americans have always been exceptional has been in our support for education. First we took the lead in universal primary education; then the “high school movement” made us the first nation to embrace widespread secondary education.