Whether and how the U.S. should encourage charitable giving has recently become a matter of public debate. The Senate Finance Committee, which is taking a fresh look at the federal tax code, earlier this month released a list of questions that it is considering, among which are proposals to repeal the charitable deduction outright or cap its value. It is clear that the charitable tax deduction—on the books since... More

Dissatisfied with the way states measure what they owe their retirees, Moody's released its own numbers, showing that the 50 states have, in aggregate, just 48 cents for every dollar in pensions they have promised.

When Congress passed the Energy Policy Act (EP Act) in 2005 with a renewable fuel standard (RFS) provision mandating that producers add ethanol to gasoline, it is unlikely that lawmakers thought the act would increase hunger and social unrest in the world’s poorest countries. However, unintended consequences frequently accompany even the most well-intentioned policies.

Delaware is among the states looking to bail out its troubled casinos.

Why American women are better off than the lean-inners and have-it-allers realize.

Fewer shareholder generated proposals passed at public firms this year, in part because of disagreements among shareholders surrounding one of the most common types of proposals, separating the company's chairman and chief-executive-officer positions. Only one of these chairman-CEO proposals has passed at a Fortune 250 company this year (at Kohl's), in keeping with historic norms: since 2006, only four percent of chairman-CEO... More

Politicians, buffeted by the pressure of false tradeoffs of higher taxes or fewer services and the ever increasing dependence on government programs and funding, usually avoid the heavy lifting of making government more efficient. Yet we remain confident that administrative savings of 10–25 percent can be achieved in almost every public agency.

San Francisco is going through one of its worst housing shortages in memory.One reason for the shortage? Me. I’ve recently joined the ranks of San Francisco landlords who have decided that it’s better to keep an apartment empty than to lease it to tenants and contend with the city's anti-landlord housing laws.

With interest rates on federal student loans set to double on July 1, Congress is considering new legislation that would prevent the increase. But there’s a problem—no one seems to know how much the student loan program costs in the first place.

Yes, other nations do achieve better health outcomes, but this is almost entirely a matter of lifestyle. Throughout the developed world, improvements in big things such as infant mortality, lifespan, even morbidity are almost completely attributable to diet; exercise; smoking, alcohol and drug usage; education; employment and income; family structure; environment; and community safety.

Here is just a small sampling of local news reports about what local government officials are saying about ObamaCare, and the steps they're taking to avoid or minimize its costs.

Governor Jerry Brown has angered greens by presenting the expansion of fracking in the state as a given.

When Barack Obama took office, the country’s energy future would have been listed among its liabilities. That is no longer the case.

Almost 40% of Detroit revenues now fund "legacy" (as opposed to operating) costs, for debt service, pensions and retiree healthcare. Without debt restructuring, that figure will grow to almost 2/3 by 2017.

The government insures reverse mortgages, which provides lenders with a strong incentive to issue them, because they can claim compensation in the event of a default. But this government support means that taxpayers could foot the bill for any number of defaulted mortgages. With a much higher default rate than traditional mortgages, reverse mortgages and their inherent risks should be left up to the market. If lenders... More

The Great Recession and growing cost-sharing in which employees pay a larger share of their health bills are responsible for a decline in the rate of growth of health costs.

Almost everything that’s said about recycling is wrong. At the very least, none of the conventional wisdom is completely true.

States cannot pretend to be in good financial health unless they tackle pensions.

The state crafts a special exemption to allow a coalition of self-employed individuals to escape the onerous demands of the system.

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs is on a mission to warn the state's residents about their staggering local debt.