Outside the Beltway

Lots of jobs that existed in recent memory — secretaries, travel agents, gas station attendants, cashiers — have been replaced by technology. The middle class may be disappearing with them.

Banks are faced with a huge number of foreclosures and that resources they’ve allocated towards handling them was woefully inadequate.

Greg Mankiw notes a curious revisionism in Barney Frank’s pronouncements on Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac.

Greg Mankiw argues that, the more of his money the government takes, the less incentive he has to earn more. That’s debatable.

If job growth continues at the anemic pace that it has been on in 2010, it could be quite some time before we return to the “Good Old Days” of 5% unemployment.

The IRS wants to license tax preparers but exempt lawyers and CPAs from the requirement.

Dow closes above 11,000 for first time since May after a decline in jobs boosts hopes of stimulus measures from the Fed.

Another month, another bad jobs report.

MSNBC.com is contemplating a name change to distinguish their brand from that of a left-leaning cable news channel.

If Mark Zuckerberg hadn’t invented Facebook someone else would have. Probably within a month or two of his invention.

It’s worth reminding ourselves, in a country where so many are trying to figure out the best way to keep excess fat off our bodies, how recently abject poverty was widespread here

A third of the Forbes 50 were born billionaires. Does that mean the game is fixed?

The numbers tell us we’re not in a recession, but the public thinks otherwise.

Just because somebody pay you money don’t mean they’ll make you do whatever they want or whatever.

Thanks to the Internet, there are a lot more Willy Lomans out there.

Facebook’s 26-year-old founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is one of the wealthiest men in America. Most of his work force is unpaid.

Blockbuster is trying to reorganize itself, but it’s probably too late.

The earnings gap between those with and without a college education continues to grow. But this masks other realities.

The UFCW of Nevada pays temporary workers minimum wage to demand fair treatment and wages from Wal-Mart.

The super rich have a lot larger share of total income than they did a generation ago. Are they taking it from the rest of us?

The CBO sees a clear threat of a fiscal crisis during the next two decades unless we’re saved by magic ponies.

Warren to appears set to oversee the establishment of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Is our problem that the very rich have too much money? Or that the rest of us don’t have enough?

Bryan Caplan argues that the fact so many kids in the developing world don’t go to school proves that education isn’t very valuable.

Responding the near-collapse of the Greek economy, forestalled only by a massive bailout from their brethren, the EU’s finance ministers agreed this morning to submit the outlines of their budget plans for approval by the European Commission.

According to Paul Krugman’s latest column, the massive destruction of World War Two was actually good for the U.S. economy. Sadly, there are people who consider him an expert.

The August jobs numbers may be “better than expected,” but they still aren’t all that great.

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has proclaimed, “The most significant threat to our national security is our debt.” Is he right?

FOX reports that the entire combat phase of the Iraq War will cost less than President Obama’s stimulus. That’s not a useful comparison.

After several months of bad housing sales, politicians in Washington are starting to talk about bringing back one of the worst public policy programs of the last two years.

For many reasons, the housing market is unlikely to fully recover for the foreseeable future.

The housing market that existed from the late 1990s until 2007/08 was an historical anomaly, and anyone expecting a return to those days is fooling themselves.

Despite raking in billions of dollars in television, ticket, and licensing revenues, all but 14 of the 106 schools in the NCAA’s top athletic division lost money in 2009. The median loss was over $10 million.

Another set of bad economic numbers are out today, and one wonders when we’ll start getting the good news.

A combination of news and some lunchtime satire.

House Minority John Boehner is getting a lot of attention for calling for mass firings at the White House. The real news, though, is that his speech is shifting the focus of the political conversation back to the economy. Which is just what the GOP needs.

Take a good look at that dollar coin, because you’re unlikely to see it circulation any time soon.

What do the critics mean when they say that the United States should be more like Germany?

Career fields dominated by women tend to pay less than those dominated by men. But gender discrimination isn’t the main reason.

Yet another sign that the America of my youth is dead: whole wheat bread is outselling white bread.