Cato Institute

Today's philanthropists are increasingly uncomfortable with the "write-a-check-and-forget-about-it" model. From Bill Gates to Philip Berber, they are taking a more active role in the way their money is given and the ways in which it is spent.

When the economic gurus at the Fed move the levers of U.S. monetary policy, they do so with two often-conflicting goals in mind: promoting maximum employment and keeping prices stable. Many critics are now arguing that that Fed should focus solely on prices.

Sounds like a joke, but, no, it's just politics: President Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which is tasked with developing a plan to get the deficit under control, is itself being starved of the funds it would need to operate effectively.

As a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, William Poole has a highly informed view of the Fed and the kinds of problems it has to grapple with. Right now, Poole says, the biggest challenge facing the U.S. economy is the "too-big-to-fail' issue." The government has taken on an...