Outside the Beltway

Rick Santorum has some extreme views on social welfare. Of course, he isn’t alone.

Guess who got advance warning of government actions on the eve of the 2008 financial crisis?

Can we credibly blame the CRA, Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, and the like for the mortgage crisis?

Campainging like is it 1999.

It was clear from the start that “Cash For Clunkers” was a bad idea.

Barry Ritholtz lists a dozen causes of the financial crisis.

The tents at Occupy Wall Street are increasingly housing the homeless.

Did Congress cause the mortgage crisis by mandating loans to poor people? No.

Social Security outlays are exceeding its income. Is that really a problem?

Increasing taxes on the rich may be a fiscal policy worth talking about, but it won’t make the poor richer.

Banks have more money than they can lend out profitably.

A case from the U.K. demonstrates why it’s a good thing to have a strong, written, Bill Of Rights.

Have Republicans been co-opted by the Big Government they claim to hate?

Is it time to just admit that the good old days are over?

Everyone’s talking about jobs again. And it’s not a pretty picture.

Some on the right are giving Occupy Wall Street and The 99%’ers a second look.

Ronald Reagan’s chief economist has a radical plan for solving the housing crisis.

The prospects for real economic recovery are not good.

With the advantage of hindsight, it’s clear that more creative strategies were needed. But they probably couldn’t have been passed.

September’s jobs report was better than expected, but still not very good.

A complexity of social policy is the need for universality. This is why pure market models are incompatible with government action.

The Occupy Wall Street protests look more like a temper tantrum than a substantive protest movement.

Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) took to the floor yesterday to lambaste Grover Norquist and his influence over the GOP.

Economists are beginning to wonder if this very slow economic recovery isn’t permanently altering the landscape.

Paul Krugman seems to believe that something like the bubble economy we enjoyed until it burst in 2008 could be had again if only our leaders were sufficiently bold.

Measuring our progress a decade after the 9/11 attacks

Not surprisingly, there was very little about the President’s jobs speech to write home about.

Did World War II teach us anything about spending-as-stimulus? Not really.

How would a Democrat-equivalent of Rick Perry be received?

Do the less attractive deserve legal protection? One University Of Texas Profess thinks so.

Details of the President’s jobs plan are starting to leak out, and they’re not looking impressive.

The signs are not good.

Does Ron Paul’s second place showing at Ames mean the media should take him seriously as a contender? No, it doesn’t.

Taking an initial look into the Texas economy.

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

The defense spending lobby is already engaging in fear-mongering over very modest defense cuts.

Don’t worry be happy!

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

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