Outside the Beltway

A meme is emerging that the Occupy Wall Street protests are America’s version of the Arab Awakening. That meme must die.

College students finally seem to be listening to the market.

Public disapproval of Congress continues to fall.

James Carville has some advice for Barack Obama. It boils down to “be like Bill Clinton.”

A new poll shows that Americans are starting to look East.

Top Democrats are starting to voice public concerns about 2012.

With most of the public looking at the future and not seeing anything good, the President is suffering

It never ceases to amaze me how many smart people manage to believe, against all evidence to the contrary, that their political philosophy has massive support.

Contrary to myth, the college classroom is a rapidly evolving place.

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

Is S&P’s downgrade of the US bond rating “free speech” and thereby protected by the Constitution?

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

Upon further review, S&P’s downgrade of the United States bond rating . . . still makes no sense.

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

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.

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

Charles Krauthammer claims we are in the midst of a great debate. I am not so sure.

He doesn’t do a very good job.

Christine Lagarde believes the impact could be large and global.

Their mouths were moving, but nothing of substance was coming out.

I never would have negotiated in the first place.

A question about borrowing.

While unemployment remains stubbornly high, Washington is spending its time fighting over the budget deficit

Are you better off than you were three years ago? 44% of Americans say no.

We might be looking at a potential fiscal crisis.

Austan Goolsbee is resigning as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors to return to the University of Chicago.

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

Despite what appear to be the fond hope of European central bankers that it will just all go away, something needs to be done. But what?

A profile of George Mason economist and blogger Tyler Cowen offers this amusing description: “Cowen, 49, has round features, a hesitant posture, and an unconcerned haircut.”

While President Obama has had some amusing gaffes on his trip to London, including getting the year wrong in the guest book and an awkward toast to the Queen, his speech to Parliament today hit all the right notes.

A study shows that most national columnists and talking heads are about as accurate as a coin flip.

Obama’s main politics are hardly as leftist as many make them out to be. Indeed, much of them could have fit well in the the GOP of 1990s and early 2000s.

President Obama is suffering in the polls because of high gas prices, but is there really anything he can do about them?

Will the Ryan Plan ever be voted out of the House?

The systemic risks of financial institutions haven’t changed much since 2008.

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

There are a lot of issues on the table, so to speak, in the WI situation. Here I try to entangle them a bit.

We can’t rely on private companies, the stock market, or the taxpayers to maintain our lifestyle in our golden years.

Neither side is covering themselves in glory in the battle over the Badger State budget.

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