In 1992 Congress enacted a bill to regulate Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Called the "Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act" (the Safety and Soundness Act), its ostensible goal was to protect taxpayers.

Opponents of capital income taxation must reframe the policy debate by explaining the economic disadvantages of capital income taxes and proposing alternative budgetary measures that maintain tax fairness.

The House of Representatives has now passed a farm bill on an entirely partisan basis. No Democrat voted for the bill, not least because the House leadership voted out the nutrition title that would have reauthorized food stamps, or Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program.

The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday to consider draft legislation for housing finance reform put forward by its chairman, Jeb Hensarling, Republican of Texas, that would end the taxpayer backstop on mortgages now provided through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and wind down the two companies over five years.

Fed Chairman Bernanke faces a tricky messaging problem for his July 17 Humphrey-Hawkins swan song before the Congress.

Rumors abound that Larry Summers could be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. Why? What advantages does he have over the front-runner, current Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen?

Bernanke has been rattling the markets with all his taper talk. The last thing the Fed wants is a Pavlovian response that every time the central banker talks, markets tank.

While the Fed appears to be busy preparing markets to "taper" QE as early as September, the White House is lowering its 2013 growth forecast , from 2.6% to 2.4% while assuming the dreaded sequester is ended.

If the special deals that create crony capitalism are allowed to survive, Republican efforts will have failed.

The Founding Fathers granted the federal government several enumerated powers and a few implied ones. The Supreme Court, in NFIB v. Sebelius, decided to take that idea a few steps further and granted the federal government the authority to use its taxing power to compel the citizenry to do whatever it wants it to do, as long as it uses certain turns of phrase.