The term “fiscal cliff” means different things at different times in different economic environments.  The single definitional consequence upon which there is universal agreement, however, is that it’s a bad thing to fall off that cliff … or even to skate too closely to its...

The obverse of “Rational Exuberance” is “Irrational Exuberance,” a phrase popularized in December 1996 by then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan when he warned investors that unjustified internet optimism had crept into stock market valuations.  As a consequence, he warned, soaring valuation assumptions based on rosy...

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution precludes the government from abridging Americans’ right to speak freely.  By guaranteeing a broadly protected – and uniquely American – freedom of speech, the Constitution provides an essential base upon which America’s democratic society has thrived through the...