Hoover senior fellow Richard Epstein discusses municipal bankruptcy and pensions on the John Batchelor Show. Topics include defined benefits versus defined contributions, pension reform in San Jose, and the unionization vote in Chattanooga.

The president can delay his budget, but no good can come from further postponing our country’s desperately needed financial reforms. The White House announced that President Obama's proposed budget for fiscal year 2015 will be released on March 4, roughly one month behind schedule. Of course, far more important than the budget's submission date is its content. Unfortunately, there is every reason to expect that, like the president's recent State of the Union address, this year's budget submission will represent another critical missed opportunity to address escalating federal fiscal problems -- while they still can be solved. Implicitly, every presidential budget is a compilation of the president’s policy choices, and this budget will be no exception. Election year budgets in particular often highlight issues that differentiate the president’s views from his political opponents’. But as we prepare to receive President Obama’s next budget in its political context, it is worth understanding how the country’s fiscal policy challenges appear when politics are subtracted from the equation.

Hoover senior fellow Richard Epstein discusses pension reform on Wall Street Journal Live. Topics include the legality of pension reform for retired workers in San Jose and Detroit, referendums on pension reform, and the political difficulties of pension reform.