Many investors who invested for their retirement saw their wealth take a huge hit during the stock market crash of 2008. Most of us don't expect the government to make us whole. But one group of employees does expect the government to make up its losses and is actually getting various state and local governments to do so. That group is government employees. Northwestern University law professor Fred McChesney tells the story and asks, "Who has an obligation to replenish" those losses? His answer: Nobody. MORE

In his classic essay "What is seen and what is not seen" (written in 1848 and published in July 1850) the shamefully underrated and neglected French economist Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) declares that what distinguishes a bad economist from a good one is that the bad one can only see what is to be seen, while the good one also discerns the as yet unseen consequences that are bound to follow the visible effect of an action. resent benefits must be painfully paid for in future costs, while present sacrifices tend to be generously rewarded in the future. The good economist must, of course, weigh up the merits of a law, a policy or an institution by taking account both of the effects he (and others) can see and the future consequences he foresees (and others do not). MORE