Outside the Beltway

An odd union contract creates powerful incentives against making escalators at subway stations in the nation’s capital work.

Republican maneuvering to extend the Bush tax cuts for all Americans appears about to pay off.

Today’s job numbers make it clear that Congress has only one duty, and that is to do everything it can to stimulate real economic growth.

Unemployment rose to 9.8% from 9.6% in November.

Incoming House Speaker John Boehner plans a radical overhaul of how Congress spends our money.

Citibank is helping the US catch up to the rest of the world with free, easy wire transfers.

The US has always outspent our G7 brethren on healthcare but the divergence has skyrocketed over the last three decades.

President Obama’s plan to free federal employee pay is getting praised by Republicans but is wildly unpopular among progressive activists.

“Cyber Monday” is a myth created by a marketing company.

Duke economist Dan Ariely argues that the Western notion of gift giving is irrational.

The Republican talking point that lowering taxes lowers spending and raising taxes increases spending is denied by reality.

President Obama is likely join the ranks of the unemployed come noon on January 20, 2013 if a Fed forecast is right.

The latest forecast from the Federal Reserve foresees stagnant growth and high unemployment for the next two years.

Airline food sucks. Mostly, it’s the food. But it’s also the altitute.

Economist Bryan Caplan argues that our educational system does not prepare our children for the modern economy.

Thomas Ricks laments that the combination of the all-volunteer military and lower top marginal rates mean that the wealthy have “checked out of America and moved into physical and mental gated communities.” To solve this problem, he proposed bringing back the draft.

Within the first few months of 2011, Congress will be required to take another unpalatable vote to raise the debt ceiling. Already, some incoming Republicans are talking about waging an effort to block the vote. That would be politically, and financially, stupid.

A new poll about the proposals coming out of the Deficit Commission makes it clear that the American public needs to grow up.

The Washington Independent goes dark in December, failing to find profitability in three years.

Here’s my plan for creating a budget surplus of $126 billion by 2015 and $592 billion by 2030.

The NFL’s “especially mercenary” push to extract new stadia from cities–even where the stadium’s practically brand-new.

Thanks to an interactive web tool from The New York Times we can all try to make the hard political choices needed to fix the budget mess.

The U.S. Postal Service is warning Congress that it could run out of cash next year without a government bailout. Meaning that this is the perfect opportunity to reform an organization that has been out-of-date for a decade now.

Okahoma’s James Inhofe has a message for the Tea Party movement — don’t be fooled by the “War On Earmarks.”

The immediate reactions from left and right to the proposals from the Chairmen of the Debt Commission are about what you’d expect.

Yesterday’s outrage of the day involved an odd book written by a creep, and it has lessons galore for everyone.

The Chairmen of the National Debt Commission have released a draft report for consideration. It’s got some very good ideas, but it’s most likely Dead On Arrival.

NYT columnist Nick Kristoff says America’s income inequality makes us a banana republic.

While health experts warn Americans to cut the amount of fat in their diet, the Federal Government helps businesses like Domino’s and Taco Bell promote high-fat products to the public.

US News & World Report is going to stop printing magazines, except for a handful of niche issues like the annual college and graduate school ranking guides.

While Social Security has radically lowered the elderly poverty rate, it hasn’t eliminated it. Should we do more?

There’s some good news in the October jobs report.

The Federal Reserve is injecting $ 600,000,000,000 into the economy, primarily in the hope that it will boost stock prices and, in turn, the economy. It might work, but if it doesn’t the consequences could be severe.

After three months, Rupert Murdoch’s strategy of walling off the Times websites isn’t looking so smart.

Neither Law Schools nor law students are admitting the fact that the legal market has changed significantly.

Once again, Angela Merkel has held her ground and forced the other EU leaders to accommodate Germany’s policy concerns. This time, it’s a set of amendments to the Lisbon Treaty to deal with sovereign debt emergencies.

Another round of GDP growth figures are out, and they show that the U.S. economy continues to grow far slower than necessary to sustain job growth. Is this a temporary problem, or something we can expect to live with for the foreseeable future?

Has Uncle Sam got a deal for you: Lend the Treasury money for five years and it will only cost you negative 0.55 percent!

New multifunction credit cards will soon change the way Americans handle simple transactions.

The biggest outside spender in 2010 isn’t the Chamber of Commerce but the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

While the displacement of poor blacks from their neighborhoods by affluent whites may be lamentable, it’s better than the alternatives.

The blogosphere spends more time dissecting the lyrics of a classic Beatles song than John Lennon did in writing them.

High earners are going to have to pay more than our fair share of the costs of government to make things work. But how we frame the debate matters.