Imagine that your daily earnings were less than the price of this newspaper. Would you consider buying private education and private healthcare? Yes, in many cases. And, when you look a little closer at the choice, it’s not so hard to see why.

Urban politicians have widely embraced the current concentration of power in Washington, but they may soon regret the trend they now so actively champion. The great protean tradition of American urbanism – with scores of competing economic centers – is giving way to a new Romanism, in which all power and decisions devolve down to the imperial core.

When the fall semester begins at many colleges and universities, it will be difficult to go through a day on campus without hearing about the need for environmental "sustainability." Those who overuse resources, the young say, are guilty of a form of "intergenerational theft," and this message has captured the hearts and minds of many and inspired them to political action. But the growth in the federal government's debt is a... More

Rose Friedman exerted her own formidable influence.

America is supposed to be a democracy in which we're all in it together. Part of that ethos, which has been so essential to the country in times of crisis, is a common understanding that we all pay a share of the costs. Taxes are an essential ingredient in the civic glue that binds us together.

Are financial sector workers paid too much? Not all of them are, of course, for there are poorly paid bank clerks and cleaners who count in this category.  But is it possible to justify the enormous rewards earned – or should we say received – by investment bankers, hedge fund managers and private equity partners?

If Obama really wants to lower costs in ways consistent with consumer choice, and also stimulate economic activity, he should recommend taxing health insurance and using the revenues to reduce marginal tax rates.

How the economics of choice plays out in the U.K., where health care bills are paid by government for people, but privately for pets.

How's that campaign going to protect Chicagoans from the scourge of working for Wal-Mart?

Consider: the US economy has actually grown less rapidly since 1914 than it did before the Federal Reserve was created.

On health care, energy, taxes and spending, President Obama is pushing a blue-state agenda during a recession that’s exposed some of the blue-state model’s weaknesses, and some of the red-state model’s strengths.