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

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

A message to progressives: By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy.

Rising inequality isn’t about who has the knowledge; it’s about who has the power.

There are no atheists in foxholes and there are no libertarians in financial crises.

Asset bubbles have happened even without not-so-easy money. And, in a depressed economy, where alternative uses of money are not great, people are going to bid up the prices of profitable corporations and stuff like that.

Raising the minimum wage and lowering the barriers to union organization would carry a trade-off - higher unemployment. A better idea is to have the government subsidize low-wage employment. The earned-income tax credit for low-income workers - which has been the object of proposed cuts by both President Clinton and congressional Republicans - has been a positive step in this direction.