WASHINGTON — As we marked Earth Day earlier this week, it is natural to ask: What do Americans think of global warming? Is it a big worry? Is government doing enough? The answers seem conclusive but, on closer inspection, are frustrating. They reveal the limits of public opinion surveys in judging public opinion. Karlyn Bowman […]

WASHINGTON — The Congressional Budget Office last week released its annual budget and economic outlook report, and although the news was gruesome, the report was greeted in Washington with a giant yawn. The assumption among Republicans and Democrats is that the political rewards for curbing runaway budget deficits are too meager to justify the risks. […]

WASHINGTON — Call it the Sputnik Syndrome. Ever since the launching of Sputnik in October 1957, Americans have feared that their economy, which at the end of World War II dominated the globe, would be overtaken by some other country. First was the Soviet Union. Remember (or maybe you don’t) that the-then Soviet leader Nikita […]

WASHINGTON — To those paying attention, the recent strikes for higher teachers’ pay in West Virginia and Oklahoma are a harbinger of things to come. You can attribute the strikes to the stinginess of the states’ political leaders. After all, average annual teachers’ salaries in these states ranked respectively 49th lowest (Oklahoma at $45,276) and […]

WASHINGTON — Anyone who has raised children knows that it’s a messy, trial-and-error process, with an emphasis on “error.” It’s hard enough to do well with two parents, a reasonably stable and sane marriage and a reliable income. When there’s only one parent with a meager income, the burdens mount and feed on themselves. That’s […]

WASHINGTON — A few years ago — probably four or five — I had an unexpected and terrifying thought: We could have World War III. Until then, I had blissfully believed, along with (I suspect) billions of others, that a nuclear holocaust — the shape of World War III — had been rendered obsolete by […]