Ben Slade

Somewhere between the rantings of the Republican right, which is peddling the nonsense that excessive government spending is to blame for high unemployment, and the Democratic left, which clings to the false hope that another helping of fiscal stimulus is all that is needed to get millions of...


Unemployment - United States - Fiscal policy - Government spending - Politics

Somewhere between the rantings of the Republican right, which is peddling the nonsense that excessive government spending is to blame for high unemployment, and the Democratic left, which clings to the false hope that another helping of fiscal stimulus is all that is needed to get millions of Ame...


Unemployment - United States - Fiscal policy - Government spending - Politics

With the economy downshifting into first gear and their poll numbers sagging, the White House and Democratic congressional leaders are desperate for an economic and political game-changer as they head into the November elections. As it happens, there's one close at hand: the expiration of the "Bush"...


Politics - Democratic - White House - United States - President

With the economy downshifting into first gear and their poll numbers sagging, the White House and Democratic congressional leaders are desperate for an economic and political game-changer as they head into the November elections. As it happens, there's one close at hand: the expiration of the "Bu...


Politics - Democratic - White House - United States - Economy

Steven Pearlstein is away. His column will return.


Steven Pearlstein - Washington Post - United States - Analysis and Opinion - Columnists

Normally, the big investment banks would be salivating over the prospect of a $15 billion stock offering by General Motors, which by rights would generate $450 million in fees. But a funny thing happened on the way to this bonanza. Goldman Sachs -- convinced it was never going to be named lead underwriter because of its legal problems and its close ties to Ford -- decided to have some fun at its rivals' expense. Tossing aside Wall Street's most sacred commandment -- Thou Shall Not Undercut the Fee Structure -- Goldman offered to do the job for 0.75 percent of the stock sale, a quarter of the normal fee.


General Motors - Wall Street - Goldman Sachs - Stock - Investment Banks

When I first heard Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell boast that by privatizing the state's liquor system he could generate the same amount of revenue and raise $500 million from auctioning off liquor licenses while holding liquor prices where they are now, I assumed this was just a free-market conservative peddling another cockamamie scheme for spinning straw into gold.


Virginia - Bob McDonnell - Conservatism - United States - Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell

As a general rule, whenever you hear special-interest groups using near-hysterical language to warn that some proposal will destroy jobs, snuff out innovation and end free-market capitalism as we know it, you can generally assume that progress is being made.


Federal Communications Commission - Free market - FCC - Network neutrality - Google

Last week's revelations about the high prices, uneven performance and shady marketing practices of for-profit universities have now cast a dark cloud over what had been the fastest-growing segment of higher education.


Higher education - For-profit school - Education - Colleges and Universities - Marketing

In pledging to give away half their fortunes to worthwhile causes, 40 of the country's billionaires have resurrected and updated Andrew Carnegie's doctrine of the "gospel of wealth." Like Carnegie, the organizers of "the giving pledge" -- Warren Buffett, and Bill and Melinda Gates -- have campaigned against the practice of bequeathing their fortunes to the next generation of family members, whose traditional role is to squander it. (Buffett and Melinda Gates are Washington Post Co. directors.) And like Carnegie, many of the other 37 who signed the list are entrepreneurs who got rich by building great companies that continue to create wealth even as they give away their own.


Warren Buffett - Melinda Gates - Andrew Carnegie - Wealth - United States

Students at charter schools tend to get higher scores on achievement tests than those who remain in public schools, but is it the schools that account for the difference or just the ambitions of the charter school parents?


Charter school - Public school - Education - School - United States

On the outside of its majestic headquarters in Washington, across the park from the White House, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently hung four giant banners that spell out exactly what it thinks is missing from the current economy: J-O-B-S.


White House - United States - United States Chamber of Commerce - Washington D.C. - Chamber of commerce

Barack Obama is at another make-or-break moment in his presidency. The last was when his health-care reform plan was nearly heckled to death at town hall meetings. In the end, health reform was signed into law, as were financial reform and the massive economic stimulus. But the toll for getting them through was so high that the president now faces the biggest challenge of all with his political capital depleted.


Barack Obama - Healthcare reform - President of the United States - United States - Town hall meeting

For a state that was instrumental in creating the federal government, Virginia seems to have been regretting it ever since.


Virginia - United States - Federal government of the United States - Government - Recreation

The Post's splendid and eye-opening series of articles on the government's counterterrorism empire ought to be required reading for those in charge of implementing the sweeping reforms of financial regulations and the health-care system, and for those still crafting legislation to deal with global warming.


counterterrorism - Government - United States - Health care - Politics

The big complaint from the business lobby these days concerns a "lack of clarity" about federal regulation that prevents companies from using all that cash piling up on balance sheets to hire workers and make major investments.


Business - Balance sheet - Regulation - Law - Services

Let's play the columnist's favorite game, connect the dots.


Connect the dots - Hospital network - Games - Hospital - Paper and Pencil

There is no denying it -- bad blood has developed between big business and the Obama administration, and that's not a good thing.


President - Barack Obama - United States - History - Government