Partisan brinkmanship in Washington is putting the nation at risk, says public finance fellow John Diamond, but Congress can use this opportunity to lay the groundwork for sustainable budget policies. In a July 18, 2011, Houston Chronicle op-ed. Diamond recommends… Continue Reading
Thanks to recent loan packages from the IMF and the EU, Greece has been once again saved from the verge of default. But what led the country to this desperate situation in the first place? Is the problem now solved,… Continue Reading
The class action behemoth at the foot of the nation’s largest employer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., has been vanquished by a narrowly divided Supreme Court. In an opinion for the nation’s highest court, Justice Antonin Scalia rejected the argument for the… Continue Reading
Are congressional Republicans emulating Marcus Licinius Crassus? Crassus (115-53 BCE) was by reputation the richest man in Rome. He made a fortune by organizing a fire brigade for use in the many city fires of the era. When a conflagration… Continue Reading
The Obama administration’s decision to decline to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in current challenges to the act’s constitutionality has had a palpable emotional impact on the public and the folks on the front lines of the ongoing… Continue Reading
Two distinguished economists at Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy have issued a report calling for the most comprehensive reform of the nation’s corporate and personal income tax system since Ronald Reagan was president. The report… Continue Reading
Many “isms” are flying around the Judiciary Committee hearing room as senators continue to grill Solicitor General Elena Kagan in her Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Republican senators speak with scorn and worry of judicial “activism.” Will Justice Kagan be an… Continue Reading