Outside the Beltway

After several months where it seemed like things were turning around, the May jobs report was depressingly bad.

President Obama has issued a Proclamation designating June 2011 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people.”

“Our records indicate that your annual income for the 2011 taxable year was $2,170,000,000,000. You have requested a credit limit of $17,000,000,000,000. These figures exceed the American Public’s guidelines for credit issuance”

Canada is much friendlier than the United States with regard to immigration.

Ohio State researchers: ARRA created/saved approximately 450 thousand state and local government jobs and destroyed/forestalled roughly one million private sector jobs.

A Huffington Post contributor who had no expectation of being paid for his contributions is suing HuffPo for $105 million.

The Supreme Court will decide whether states may jail parents who fail to make child support payments without providing them an attorney.

People and businesses are sitting on cash out of fear, creating a vicious cycle.

Job interviews, resumes, and all the rest are imperfect ways of matching candidates with employment openings.

Much like the buds starting to appear on the Cherry Blossom trees in Washington, D.C., February’s jobs report offers some signs of new life for the labor market.

Speaking before Congress yesterday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke debunked the assertion that the GOP’s relatively modest $61 billion spending cut package would significantly harm economic growth.

The most likely cuts in federal spending are likely to actually increase the deficit over time.

Should employers be allowed to ask for your Facebook login as a condition of employment?

In the Middle East, protesters are marching for democracy. In the Midwest, they’re protesting against it.

Being unemployed, especially in the long term, makes it less likely to get hired.

Shirley Sherrod’s lawsuit against Andrew Brietbart promises to be an interesting test of the boundaries of defamation law in the political blogosphere.

House Democrats are calling on Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from any litigation regarding the Affordable Care Act. It’s a phony argument, but that’s because it has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with legal ethics.

President Obama is telling business they have a social responsibility to invest in America. He’s wrong.

The January jobs report is, in a word, disappointing.

We’re producing more PhDs and JDs than there are full time openings for professors and lawyers.

The American military personnel system works against keeping the best and brightest officers in the service.

President Obama and Chief Justice Roberts are calling for bipartisanship in the New Year.

As things stand right now, the dynamics don’t look good for President Obama in 2012

The unemployed are predominately poorly educated non-voters. Some argue that they are therefore getting far too little attention from the political class.

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.

Despite recurring predictions that the Internet and mass communications would allow people to work from anywhere, talent continues to cluster in big cities.

Bridget Terry Long, a professor of education and economics at Harvard, argues that we should give prospective college students and their families better information on such matters as loan burdens, graduation rates, average class size, average aid package, salaries earned and positions held by recent graduates, and alumni satisfaction.

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.

The mental gymnastics people go through to justify their position on marijuana legalization are exhausting.

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

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner held a private, off-the-record meeting in comedian Jon Stewart’s office back in April. Speculation abounds.

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.

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

A Hayes Research poll has Joe Miller in 3rd place in Alaska. They’re the only ones showing that and have a very poor track record.

Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen argues that it’s time to put the debate over the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill mess to rest. He’s right.

There’s a trend toward using metrics to identify ways to stem the skyrocketing cost of higher education. The likeliest result is to devalue the “education” component.