Default is not in our stars, but in ourselves.

The problem isn't that people don't understand how good things are. It's that they know, from personal experience, that things really aren't that good.

The key reason executives are paid so much now is that they appoint the members of the corporate board that determines their compensation and control many of the perks that board members count on. So it's not the invisible hand of the market that leads to those monumental executive incomes; it's the invisible handshake in the boardroom.

Unsustainable situations usually go on longer than most economists think possible. But they always end, and when they do, it's often painful.

It should be possible to emphasize to students that the level of employment is a macroeconomic issue, depending in the short run on aggregate demand and depending in the long run on the natural rate of unemployment, with microeconomic policies like tariffs having little net effect. Trade policy should be debated in terms of its impact on efficiency, not in terms of phoney numbers about jobs created or lost.

Are you, or is someone you know, a gadget freak? If so, you doubtless know that Wednesday was iPhone 5 day, the day Apple unveiled its latest way for people to avoid actually speaking to or even looking at whoever they're with.

The United States in particular and the West in general should be feeling a little embarrassed about all that lecturing we did to the Third World.