What Republicans have actually put on the table is almost nothing. All of the rest is just big talk. So how is the president supposed to negotiate with people who say, 'Here's my demands. By the way, I can't give you any specifics. Just make me happy'?

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

For most Americans, economic growth is a spectator sport.

If you are a good economist, a virtuous economist, you are reborn as a physicist. But if you are an evil, wicked economist, you are reborn as a sociologist.

If the price of everything is going down, that's going to include wages as well. People will have an incentive to sit on their cash and not spend it.

We should try to create the society each of us would want if we didn't know in advance who we'd be.

The federal government is basically an insurance company with an army.