Explore More

It is in the nature of a complicated bipartisan agreement that it looks very different depending on what prism you look at it through. Two elements are critically important: what is actually in the bill that passed and the president will sign, and how its passage ‘sets up’ the future fiscal debates

This is the headline we should really be seeing after last night's fiscal cliff deal. As a result of the deal, the bulk of the Bush tax cuts will remain permanently in place, the AMT will be eliminated, and Obama's stimulus tax cuts, mainly aimed at the working poor, will live on for another five

While tax hikes on the affluent have gotten most of the attention in the fiscal cliff deal, an equally important story is how proposals for further stimulus spending died a quiet death in Washington over recent weeks.

Political scientists who study Congress, like the scholar Douglas Arnold, have long argued that while money matters in politics, legislators ultimately tend to be responsive to their constituents.

Dylan Matthews posted a fascinating interview with law professor Barak Orbach yesterday, which goes a long way toward explaining the current withered state of antitrust law.

Though technology and innovation have squeezed trading costs, the industry's profits are accounting for a bigger share of U.S. GDP, a former Goldman banker says, needlessly diverting some $635 bln from the broader economy. It lends credence to ideas like a transaction tax.

Last year, in the midst of the holiday season, I pointed out that 90 percent of households have at least one unused item lying around and 70 percent have unused electronic items. It makes more fiscal and environmental sense to just not buy something, rather than buy it and not use it. Beyond that

All of Washington seems to agree that tax loopholes should be closed. Yet, as a practical matter, closing some of the biggest loopholes is no easy thing because of their importance to individuals and the economy as a whole. Take a meat cleaver to the home mortgage interest deduction and you hurt a

Once upon a time, a few decades ago, members of the U.S. Senate spent a fair amount of time together and got to know each other personally. They were more likely to stick around Washington on the weekends, and during breaks, and socialized together more often with their families. Once upon a time

Access to a post-secondary education is a vital aspect of the American dream, allowing for equality of opportunity and a stable pathway to the middle class for all who are willing to work for it regardless of their background or socioeconomic status.  Higher education not only improves the prospects