Despite the oft-heard claims that current generations are stealing from future generations by running fiscal deficits, both theory and evidence suggest that this is either not true or not knowable. Intergenerational justice is not an appropriate lens through which to analyze fiscal issues,...

Transactions at non-equilibrium prices are false trades. Under standard assumptions, markets without false trading produce Pareto-efficient outputs. This paper demonstrates graphically the complications created when false trades occur, showing that quantities produced deviate from...

[Note: Earlier versions of this article appeared on SSRN under the titles 'Should We Adopt William Vickrey's Cumulative Averaging Income Tax System? Progressivity and Simplicity in Tax Reform,' and 'Should We Tax Average Income? Vickrey, Equity, and Tax Design.' They have been superseded by this...

The current successor to a federal statute first enacted in 1917, and widely known as the “debt ceiling,” limits the face value of money that the United States may borrow. Congress has repeatedly raised the debt ceiling to authorize borrowing to fill the gap between revenue and spending, but...

The Federal Reserve (“Fed”) is the central bank of the United States. Because of its power and importance in guiding the economy, the Fed's independence from direct political influence has made it a target of ideologically motivated attacks throughout its history, with an especially...

This article responds to claims that law professors are engaged in scholarly pursuits that fail to serve important social functions. I argue that legal scholarship “matters” in important ways, and in particular that the legal academy has improved its service to society by embracing...

Congressional Republicans, starting in 2011, embarked upon an unprecedented strategy of budgetary brinkmanship, threatening not to increase the statutory debt ceiling by the amount necessary to accommodate their own taxing and spending decisions. Starting from the very beginning, Neil H....