However, the fact that an economist offers a theoretical analysis does not and should not automatically command respect. What is needed is some assurance that the analysis is actually relevant.

The trouble with poverty, as an issue, is that it has basically exhausted the patience of the general public.

The real danger with debt is what happens if lots of people decide, or are forced, to pay it off at the same time.

Democracy or breakdown in Syria would change the whole Middle East overnight.

I predict that in the years ahead Enron, not Sept. 11, will come to be seen as the greater turning point in U.S. society.

America's political landscape is infested with many zombie ideas - beliefs about policy that have been repeatedly refuted with evidence and analysis but refuse to die. The most prominent zombie is the insistence that low taxes on rich people are the key to prosperity.

Not all private equity people are evil. Only some.