Kids and dogs We see a lot of them during the Christmas season thanks to family gatherings and annual visits to neighbors For many of us with no kids or whose children have grown up Christmas is one of the rare times when we come face-to-face with the youngest generation For most of the year ch

The minimum wage could be one of the biggest political issues in 2014 and it rsquo s surprising how many people would be affected by an increase in what society considers a barely acceptable pay rate We all know about workers at McDonald rsquo s and Walmart but how many would guess that ldquo ban

Solutions to long-term unemployment do not seem to be on the agenda for 2014.

In my last post I suggested that we reduce partisanship in Washington by imposing a fine on the major parties each time they fail to get 30 percent in a congressional race This threat would be an incentive for the parties to recruit candidates who can appeal to local voters and we might end up wi

One of my favorite words is ldquo satisficing rdquo or the phenomenon of people choosing the first acceptable option they come across Most of us hate making decisions and want the process to be over as quickly as possible which is why a large number of choices can be terrifying rather than libe

ACA, DMV, FBI, IRS… how many voters make distinctions among them?

We rsquo re now in the Christmas season which means there are fewer hard-news stories and more fantasizing about a political system that would fit the finale of It rsquo s a Wonderful Life Today NBC News rsquo First Read blog invites us to rekindle our imaginations from childhood when we were i

We rsquo re long past the time when ldquo suburbia rdquo is a useful term for anything Writing that the suburbs are the key to an election is hack political analysis even worse than predicting that independent voters will decide a race often they don rsquo t American suburbs are so varied in

Paul Ryan wants the Republican Party to talk more about poverty The Wisconsin congressman a possible presidential candidate in 2016 ldquo hopes to roll out an anti-poverty plan rdquo next year according to a profile by Lori Montgomery in the Washington Post Ryan is best known for preaching au

It rsquo s almost enough to make you wish for more sports metaphors in political reporting In October ldquo brinkmanship rdquo was the word of choice in describing the stand-off in Washington that nearly resulted in a default on the national debt In November the confounding inconveniences asso