A proposed California law, the Dropout Reduction and Workforce Development Bond Act of 2013, is based on social-impact bonds, a creative financing mechanism popularized first in the U.K. to use market discipline to improve public services.

Against all expectations, US emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, since peaking in 2007, have fallen by 12 percent back to 1995 levels. The primary reason, in a word, is “fracking.” Or, in 11 words: horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to recover deposits of shale gas. No other factor comes close to an explanation.

User fees paid by air travelers can be diverted to all manner of unrelated government spending.

Pension funds within corporations are becoming a serious threat in their potential to dampen market sentiment in the long run.

Japan is on its sixth central-bank governor since its bubble burst in 1990, and like his predecessors, Haruhiko Kuroda is doubling down on quantitative easing. Why? Politicians, bankers, investors and businesspeople alike get addicted to free money all too easily and clamor for more.

Big Wall Street banks and consumer advocacy groups like the Center for Responsible Lending don’t agree on much. But recently, these strange bedfellows have been brought together by their opposition to new rules governing mortgage-underwriting standards.

Richard Ravitch had a bracing message for munical-bond underwriters, investors, and advisers at a Bond Buyer conference yesterday. "It's troublesome to think there's a moral distinction between obligations" such as municipal bonds and pension commitments, he said.In "our value system," which respects contracts, Ravitch added, these are "equal kinds of obligations."

One of the most frequent and unfortunate failures to understand that things don't always scale linearly involves democracy. Too many people assume that what holds true for their book club or homeowners association holds true for democratic polities of millions of people.

For the many American pundits who insist that Republicans and Democrats should make compromises and moderate their own stances on deficit reduction — lower spending and higher taxes, respectively — the British experience should serve as a warning.

Perhaps most astonishing is that only 35 percent of women who have earned MBAs after getting a bachelor’s degree from a top school are working full time.

The stimulus wasn’t sold as a plan to build bathrooms. But it was rushed to passage based on economic assumptions that remain hotly contested. Its implementation was marred by politics, logistics, and red tape. And the aid it directed toward the country’s least well off may have undermined the very recovery it was designed to hasten. This is what happens when politicians insist that something big must be done, even... More

After a timeout for the recession, the National Football League is back in the game of getting public money to pay for better stadiums. In many cases, teams want to replace or renovate stadiums finished during a 1990s sports construction boom.

The view that terrorism inevitably makes cities less attractive understands only that they are natural targets. Yet the compact nature of a place also means it can be defensible and even a harbor. Urban density has also raised risks of ordinary crime, contagious disease and devastating fire, but we have successfully made cities healthier and safer.

It's arguably the worst aspect of Obamacare that half of its expansion of health insurance coverage is done through Medicaid, instead of the law's private insurance exchanges. Implementing Obamacare's Medicaid expansion will burden  taxpayers in two ways: By committing states to a massive increase in health care spending, and by increasing the cost of health insurance for middle-class residents already struggling with... More

Students piling on debt to go to college might attract all the attention, but colleges have been on a borrowing spree as well, nearly doubling the amount of debt they’ve taken on in the last decade to fix aging campuses, keep up with competitors and lure students with lavish amenities.

I run a retail service business (operating campgrounds and public parks) with over 400 employees.  We knew from the day that the PPACA (or “Obamacare”) passed we would be too large to be exempt from the law and that it would have enormous, even catastrophic effects on our business.

Beyond chocolates, cheese and banking.

Why new college grads can't get a break.

When is prediction useful—and when is it dangerous?

Do such entities as Nascar race tracks, wind farmers and Hollywood producers really need special tax breaks at the expense of the rest of the population?

Many people want to believe that the Chinese are destined to become more efficient than Americans at producing everything. The fact that economics explains why his pet belief is foolish makes no impression on them.

The White House proposal would raise the cost of giving to charity from 60 cents per dollar to 72 cents per dollar.  That’s a 20 percent increase in what can be called the “charity tax.”

The IRS actively promotes fear of itself, with the excuse that it increases compliance. The complexity of the tax code gives people within the IRS greater opportunity to do this.

The largest factor in the proliferation of disability spending comes from the fact that Congress has dramatically expanded the definition of who gets called “disabled.” As a result, many able-bodied Americans have been granted government paychecks for life.

She fashioned of herself a kind of Kryptonite against all forms of socialism and collectivism, both in Britain and the world. She did so precisely as the war against socialism at home and abroad was ripe for the winning—at least for a time—and in so doing, created the Margaret Thatcher not only of history, but also of myth.

In my own life, which has always been based on a rigorous application of optimization methods, the equations dictated that I meet my future wife in line at a Princeton dining hall at age 17, but that we should not date for another 15 years and not wed until after our 15th reunion.  

Stockman paints a grim picture, but despite his pessimism America remains a magnet for the world.

Since 2008, public interest in the health of state and local pension systems has been consistently strong. The financial crisis caused systems' funding levels to drop dramatically, requiring increased contributions from governments even while revenues were in short supply. The news has been much better recently. The Dow Jones now stands at a record high, having more than doubled in value... More

The Obama administration has insisted that the recovery has been both steady and sound, almost ever since it began.Then why the continuing rise in food stamp program enrollment?

Catastrophic health insurance could lower the cost of care as people pay for routine expenditures out of tax-favored health savings accounts. But under Obamacare, catastrophic health plans are only allowed to be sold on exchanges to people under 30 years of age. Everyone else has to buy plans with free preventive care, mental health and drug abuse coverage, and... More

There is little basis for the thinking that inequality is at the root of our economic challenges, and therefore for believing that reducing inequality would meaningfully address our lagging growth, enable greater mobility, avert future financial crises, or secure America's democratic institutions.

A new report claims the rich are stingy givers. But  Internal Revenue Service data indicates that just those earning more than $200,000–in the top five percent by income– donated $69 billion—or fully 33 percent of the total $206 billion in individual (non-corporate, non-foundation) charitable giving in 2010. In other words, this is another version of the income tax debate, in which it’s argued... More

Can Washington learn anything about how to regulate effectively from sports geeks?

Polling evidence suggests the public accepts the idea that it is fair to ask those in receipt of benefits to share the burden faced by those who aren't. The Coalition certainly intends to change Britain – for the better, by trying to slow the runaway growth in the welfare state, and change a culture that encourages dependency. In that sense, the response to the Guardian's headline should be "let's hope so".

Hollywood hasn’t paid much attention to the Christian community. Movie and TV studios are more likely to rile up prominent evangelicals in the U.S. than cozy up to them. But today, the industry seems to be tapping into the faith-based market more than ever before with megahits like the new series The Bible.