Outside the Beltway

The rat race of becoming a physician and maintaining one’s license is more intense than popularly understood.

A major first step to solving a longstanding global issue.

This isn’t likely to end any time soon.

A deep dive into typography and naming choices.

Can society forgive the men caught up in the #MeToo movement? Is it even our place to decide?

A Duke history professor uncovers “stealth plan” by “fifth columnists” who are seeking to overthrow democracy in the U.S. for their plutocrat masters.

What if this is the new normal?

Because no one, ever, has ever questioned the intelligence of American voters in extemporaneous discussions of politics.

The USA’s 142-year streak as the world’s largest economy is ending.

There are lots of different ways of looking at the situation in Ukraine—historical, game theoretical, and interpersonal perspectives.

Minting a Platinum Coin would be a really bad idea.

Signs are brewing that the Chinese economy is slowing down significantly.

Are the Stuxnet and Flame attacks the opening shots in a dangerous new era of secret war?

Our psychological and cultural biases make evaluating information and arguments rationally next to impossible.

Aaron Shaw and Yochai Benkler have an article in the current issue of American Behavioral Scientist titled “A Tale of Two Blogospheres : Discursive Practices on the Left and Right.”

It’s not just low wages that have kept technology manufacturing jobs out of the United States.

Finding a job gets harder when businesses discover they don’t need to hire as many people as they used to.

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

Fascinating exchange from the late 1970s.

What exactly is the GOP trying to accomplish in the debt ceiling negotiations?

The Netherlands is considering a new animal cruelty law that would effectively ban kosher and halal slaughter practices.

Is Peter Diamond qualified to be a Fed governor?

We need to stop talking as if the Medicare debate is a question of the Ryan Plan v. the Status Quo.

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.”

How do the DC suburbs of Maryland and Virginia compare?

American states and localities, desperate for new sources of revenue, concoct some creative ways to tax.

While the amount of wealth controlled by the top 1% is at record highs, real inequality is smaller than ever.

Humorist David Sedaris says that he can get $500 a night in his tip jar “for candy” but the same people would probably give a beggar outside 75 cents.

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

You might not hear little kids say they want to be “powerful” when they grow up. But they sure as hell want power now.

The value of education depends on what one means by “education.”

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.

Free parking is a very inefficient use of land resources that wouldn’t exist without government mandates and subsidies. Is it time to end the practice?

German government payments compensating hunters for lost income due to radioactive boar have quadrupled since 2007.

Money, so they say, is the root of all evil today.

What can you learn about a blogger’s personality from his word choice?

A Princeton economist has devised a formula for a classic sitcom paradox.

Parenting is hard work and kids are a giant pain. Is it worth it?