The role of speculators in the world’s oil markets has been widely blamed for bringing consumers $4 gasoline last summer — and rightly so. A recently completed study by two Baker Institute scholars further confirms that this blame is not misplaced and recommends specific ways to do something to limit the speculators’ influence.
Research by Baker’s [...]

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Here’s my contribution to today’s tax day festivities: an effort to get you to think about federal taxes a little bit differently than usual. Normally, when we talk about taxes, we end up talking about percentages of people: the top 1% pay a certain amount, the bottom third pay a different amount, etc. [...]

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An extremely interesting analysis of the state of the economy and where it may lead from here. Thanks to Jason Kottke for the pointer
If anything, our government policies should encourage renting, not buying. Homeownership occupies a central place in the American Dream primarily because decades of policy have put it there. A recent study by [...]

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I’ve been wondering why the impact of the financial crisis on the overall retirement “system” hasn’t gotten more attention in the media. We already knew the system was in bad shape before September 2008. According to the Fed’s Survey of Consumer Finances, in 2007, only 60.9% of households where the head of household was age [...]

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