Outside the Beltway

He’s been out of office for more than two years, but George W. Bush is still being blamed for the state of the economy.

The Postal Service believes it can save itself by making service worse. Something about that doesn’t compute.

Either a bunch of bloggers or one of the world’s smartest economists doesn’t understand economics.

The world is likely to get worse before it gets better.

Money isn’t the only benefit some receive for their work.

The signs are not good.

Rick Perry’s vision of capitalism doesn’t exactly comply with what Adam Smith had in mind.

Not only is the US outspending all our allies and competitors combined in real dollars on defense, we’re doing so in terms of GDP as well.

Michele Bachmann is promising $2.00 gas. Not surprisingly, she has no idea how to achieve this seemingly impossible goal.

Social Security is like a Ponzi scheme in one way but not in other, more important ones.

According to Paul Krugman, what the American economy needs is for a bunch of space aliens to invade us.

One of the super-rich says we should stop coddling the super-rich.

The IBM PC was introduced 30 years ago. Has its time passed?

Denying the Tea Party’s role in the downgrade of U.S. debt is to deny reality.

Although he didn’t get the words quite right yesterday, Mitt Romney was exactly right about corporations.

The Twitterverse and the Democratic National Committee are having a field day with Mitt Romney’s declaration that “Corporations are people, my friend.”

Today is Cost of Government Day, at least for those who can’t do math.

Rebecca J. Rosen explains why “Ridiculously Long CVS Receipts Will Remain Ridiculously Long.” And Mitch Hedberg ponders why they give you a receipt for a donut.

Non-rich people are in favor of taxing the rich and using the proceeds to fund programs for non-rich people

What you think you know about the U.S.-China trade relationship may not be entirely true.

Michele Bachmann is claiming that the debt downgrade proves she was right about not raising the debt ceiling.

Will the Fed announce another round of Quantitative Easing?

Joseph Nye explains why China’s “demand the United States address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China’s dollar assets” is really just talk.

Any politician telling you that solving our problems will be easy is lying to you.

Lost in the hubbub of S&P downgrading the US bond rating is news that the Italian government has the ratings agencies under criminal investigation.

We are being warned once again that the Postal Service is on the verge of financial collapse. There really is only one solution.

The immediate reaction among the political class to the debt downgrade was the play the same old stupid games.

Like the rest of us, financial analysts across the globe are trying to figure out what the U.S. debt downgrade means.

While it’s hard to argue with S&P’s political analysis, its economic judgment is a head-scratcher.

So, it happened………

There is little to cheer in the jobs report released by the Labor Department today.

Apparently, getting the debt deal done was not a panacea.

Don’t worry be happy!

Rumors of Timothy Geithner’s departure from the Treasury Department may have been exaggerated.

Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff says we’re undergoing much more than a mere recession.

Following on Doug’s cheery post about the weak state of the economy here are some more things to consider.

One year ago, Timothy Geithner said them things about the economy he probably wishes he could take back right now.

Fascinating exchange from the late 1970s.

Another round of economic statistics raises questions about the health of the economy.

Now that America’s political leadership have probably averted a self-inflicted global economic calamity, it’s time to assess the winners and losers.