Automatic For The People: The latest failure of Congress to get anything done won't just result in deserved mockery of the Supercommittee's name—it could also kill the local economy. The automatic cuts in federal spending that would be triggered in 2013, thanks to the committee's inability to agree on other ways to reduce the budget deficit, would take economic growth to zero in the area, local economy guru Stephen Fuller estimates. Then again, that would still put the D.C. area in better shape than most of the rest of the country. -3

Occupy The Budget: District officials say they're not ready to endorse pepper-spraying Occupy protesters quite yet, but the grumbling from authorities about the encampment in McPherson Square continues. Word came today that the District has spent $1 million over the last two months maintaining a police presence near the protests and marches. But considering the protests are calling attention to things like the vacant Franklin School, making McPherson Square feel lived in, and providing a new live music venue, it may be worth the cost. Of course, one way to cut expenses: Send fewer cops to the park. -1

Long Way Down: The escalator at the Rosslyn Metro station is the third-longest in the world. So falling down it would seem like the sort of thing you might have to be drunk to do. And in fact, that's exactly what Metro officials say caused a guy to do just that Friday evening, after having "several" alcoholic beverages, then trying to sit on the railing. He was treated at George Washington University Hospital and released. -1

I'm A Loser Baby: For a moment Sunday, it almost looked like the Washington Redskins would pull it off—not just an upset victory over the Dallas Cowboys, but also a win over the growing certainty most fans have that this year's team, despite all the promises from various fellows named Shanahan, is just not very good. And then, in a flash (or rather, a missed Graham Gano field goal in overtime), it was all over. Dallas won, 27-24. Afterwards, sports talk radio was full of discussion of "moral victories," but wide receiver Jabar Gaffney wasn't buying it; he took to Twitter to tell a Cowboys fan to kill himself. -3

Friday's Needle rating: 59 Today's score: -8 Today's Needle rating: 51

DCFPI reports: "Some 61,000 resident—11 percent of all residents—live below half of the poverty line, or just under $11,000 for a family of four. This represents an increase of 14,000 extremely poor residents."

For East of the River residents, the poverty rate rose from 27 percent in 2007 to 34 percent in 2009. That's a third of residents living in Wards 7 and 8.

The Institute also reports:

"The new Census data show that median household income increased from $56,000 in 2007 to $59,000 in 2009, but the gain has been confined to a Census-defined area in the center of the city that includes parts of Wards 1, 2, and 6. Median income in this area rose from $60,000 in 2007 to $74,000 in 2009. By contrast, median household income east of the Anacostia River dropped from $32,100 in 2007 to $30,700 in 2009."

"The unemployment rate in the District of Columbia for August was unchanged from the revised July rate of 9.9% reported the District of Columbia’s Department of Employment Services. The number of jobs decreased by 26,100 in August which were mainly due to the Mayor’s 2010 Summer Youth Employment Program ending. The August national unemployment rate was 9.6 percent, up 0.1% from the revised rate in July 2010."

One would think that all the paid volunteers on Fenty's Green Team would have made a dent in the unemployment numbers. Oh well.

A breakdown of the employment numbers after the jump.

According to DOES:

"Professional and Business Services lost 2,000 jobs, after a 4,300 job gain in July. With employment at 156,400, jobs are up 8,900 or 6.0 percent from a year ago.

Educational and Health Services lost 1,500 jobs, after a loss of 400 jobs the prior month. With employment at 97,600, jobs are down 2,800 or -2.8 percent from a year ago.

Leisure and Hospitality lost 800 jobs following a gain of 100 jobs in July. With employment at 58,500, jobs are up 1,100 or 1.9 percent over the year.

Other Services lost 1,200 jobs, after a loss of 300 jobs the prior month. At 63,000, employment is down 1,600 or -2.5 percent from a year ago.

Financial Activities gained 100 jobs, after having no over-the-month job change the prior month. With employment at 26,200, jobs are down 300 or -1.1 percent from a year ago.

Information had no over-the-month job change, after no over-the-month job change in July. At 18,600, employment is down 200 or -1.1 percent from one year ago.

Construction gained 400 jobs, after a gain of 100 jobs in July. At 11,600, employment is up 300 or 2.7 percent from a year ago.

Trade, Transportation, and Utilities lost 300 jobs, after a loss of 200 jobs in July. With employment at 27,000, the sector is up 200 jobs or 0.7 percent from a year ago.

Manufacturing had no over-the-month job change.  Employment in manufacturing has remained constant.  With employment at 1,400, there was no change from a year ago.  Manufacturing is the smallest sector in the District accounting for less than 0.2 percent of total payroll employment."

That, at least, is the argument Politico (er, sorry, POLITICO) has plastered all over its homepage this morning, breathlessly heralding the results of a survey 1,011 Americans and "227 Washington, D.C., Elites." The poll, taken by Mark Penn, finds the D.C. elites think the country is doing much better than the schlubs outside the Beltway. And the accompanying story plays up the expansion of government and the way it's kept the region afloat economically. "Washington has been largely shielded from the economic downturn, even in 2009, when most states and cities were hit the hardest," Politico executive editor Jim VandeHei and staff writer Zachary Abramson write under the headline, "Reality Gap." The crux of the argument:

The massive expansion of government under President Barack Obama has basically guaranteed a robust job market for policy professionals, regulators and contractors for years to come. The housing market, boosted by the large number of high-income earners in the area, many working in politics and government, is easily outpacing the markets in most of the country. And there are few signs of economic distress in hotels, restaurants or stores in the D.C. metro area.

That last bit, though, isn't actually true.

Unemployment in the District, after all, was at 10.4 percent in May—nearly a full percentage point higher than the national rate of 9.5 percent reported for June. Wander around the city, and it's not hard to find the "signs of economic distress" Politico blithely dismisses (take Mt. Pleasant, for instance, or lower Georgia Avenue in Park View, or Ward 8—and its median household income of under $30,000 and 553 vacant properties). The problem is, you have to leave the McLean-Bethesda-Chevy Chase-Rosslyn-K Street-Capitol Hill axis of power that dominates Politico's world to find them.

The story, and Penn's analysis, are careful to note that they're talking about "D.C. elites," not the city as a whole. (To make the cut for the elite, you had to work in politics or policy, earn more than $75,000 a year and have at least a college degree.) But the headline and the general thesis of the piece—that D.C. is doing just fine, while the rest of the country struggles—winds up contributing to the notion that no one lives here except politicians, lobbyists and overpaid government workers. Which City Paper doesn't have to remind any of you isn't true; frankly, Politico doesn't have to remind you about that, either, since they do note in their story that government employment and contracting only accounts for about 30 percent of the jobs in the entire region. But that blinkered view, that everyone in the city moved here to work in national politics, is pretty common among Politico's readers—many of whom, after all, did just that. (Then again, Penn's other appearance in the national media this weekend was a New York Times op/ed urging Obama to double the size of the space budget—an idea that is, actually, out of touch with reality.)

Yes, the region's economy is doing better than many others. And yes, there are plenty of people with high-powered political or policy jobs who are still flush. But there are thousands of Washingtonians who don't have a thing to do with the federal government, and thousands of Washingtonians are suffering through the recession just like everyone else in the country. The implicit message of the Politico story is that we're all vultures here, living the high life as government booms and taxes go up—while honest people everywhere else cut back and suffer.

Can't wait for the next round of Washington-bashing that inspires.

UPDATE: Turns out I wasn't the only one in the District whose first instinct on reading VandeHei's story was to start typing frantically. D.C. Democratic political consultant Chuck Thies e-mailed Ben Smith this morning to note the unemployment rates in Wards 7 and 8 hover near 25 percent—which doesn't exactly put Washingtonians on Easy Street. Maybe next time, Politico won't fall into the easy trap of assuming everyone in the District lives exactly the same life as their own well-paid editors and readers do. (But I'm not holding my breath.)

"The unemployment rate in the District of Columbia for May 2010 was 10.4 percent, a 0.6% decrease from the 11.0 percent rate for April 2010, according to data released today by the DC Department of Employment Services (DOES).

May marked the fifth straight month of a drop in the unemployment rate; at the same time the US rate decreased slightly. The report for May showed the lowest unemployment rate since August 2009."

Anyone feeling this .6 percent decrease?

Cappuccino photo by Jazzbobrown, Creative Commons Attribution License

This week, The Modern Times Coffeehouse has become the first coffee shop in the District to throw down the gauntlet at Wi-Fi loafers: The management has covered up some of the electrical outlets in an attempt to herd its laptop loiterers toward communal tables, where they can still plug in.

This particular gambit was first seen after the economy took a nosedive in New York City and has since spread elsewhere as independent shops try to cope with hordes of wireless customers, including laid off workers with plenty of time but little disposable income. Washington, as usual, is fashionably late to join in. The Modern Times appears to be the first  in the District to take similar measures.

But, not all local café owners see this as a good option. At Tynan Coffee and Tea, a Columbia Heights joint that opened in October, special care was taken to ensure the electrical outlets were close to the tables and plentiful enough to satisfy demand from laptop owners, according to Jim Sullivan, who owns the place with his brother Brian.

Now that McDonald’s franchises offer free Wi-Fi, Starbucks no longer charges its customers to get online, and even bookstore chains like Barnes & Noble double as hotspots, independent coffeehouses are in no position to forgo the complimentary hookups.

“It’s a balance,” says Dan Silverman, A.K.A. the Prince of Petworth, whose site has played host to the online furor over changes in the Wi-Fi policies at Tynan and Sticky Fingers Bakery. “They are not running Starbucks or a Dunkin’ Donuts. They want to foster an independent feeling and not just cycle people in and out.”

Beyond questions of profitability, many café owners find themselves caught between their wired and unwired customers.

Moderating the growing strife has proved more complicated than the Sullivan brothers had imagined. Last month, the shop cut back on the Internet service and turned it off altogether during some weekend hours, after a flurry of complaints from the sans-computer crowd.

“We got a fair amount of feedback from people in the neighborhood, saying: ‘Love your place but I couldn’t find a seat,” Sullivan says. But the changes fueled new controversy from the digital nomads in the neighborhood.

At The Modern Times, the debate has taken on a generational dimension.

"It's a shame that some folks feel that they are being pushed out by a new technology – one, that, honestly, I'm still coming to terms with myself. I understand that this sentiment is partly derived from a slight fear of the new and perhaps a manifestation of an increasing generational gap, but, nonetheless, it is a valid concern that creates conflict, worry, much argument and division,” Javier, one of the café’s operators, wrote on its blog earlier this month.

Informal readers’ poll: Should more café’s pull the plug on unlimited Internet usage?

Cappuccino photo by Jazzbobrown, Creative Commons Attribution License

If you are just tuning to this new WCP series on Internet cafes around the District, let me introduce myself: I am the Wi-Fi loafer on assignment, your faithful correspondent on wired café culture.

Since this is a confessional column I figure you might want to know how I became a Wi-Fi loafer, a café idler and usurper of table space.

Until recently, I was more of what you might call a Wi-Fi café dilettante, not the harden loafer I’ve become. I might have spent an hour comfortably ensconced in one of those faux living room setups at Busboys & Poets or checked the movie listings on a lazy Sunday in the afterwords part of Kramer Books. For getting any real work done, though, I pretty much stuck to my apartment/office, where it’s easy to do phone interviews and the coffee is free, plentiful and always fresh.

My loafing days began last summer when we had a lot of visitors. DC is a great place to live. It certainly makes you popular with friends and family; the same folks who would never visit you when you live in Des Moines or Columbus with a REAL need of outside stimulus. Nope. Those folks don’t make the trek to places like Des Moines. But move to DC and you’d better be ready for a steady onslaught.

While it’s nice of them to visit, those of you who work from home know as well as I do that having your in-laws in town for two weeks can put a real cramp in your productivity. I took to sneaking away to Internet cafes.

That’s when I discovered that despite the friendly service Wi-Fi cafe owners really don’t like it when you stay all day. And, while they may offer free refills, they consider it rather rude when you replenish your coffee cup – like 15 times – during the hours you toil there, books and papers sprawled across an entire table. While many proprietors go out of their way to make you feel at home, they don’t want you to get THAT comfortable.

But four hours can go by fast when you are actually trying to meet a deadline and not just checking the movie listings or obsessing over email.

Still, nobody’s going to come over and evict you as long as you've made some minimum purchase. (At least, I have yet to be asked to leave, though there have been a few cases around the country where Wi-Fi scofflaws have been led away in handcuffs for pirating shop connections without buying as much as a teabag. I’m not making this stuff up, check out this story.)  The baristas may not toss out a paying customer but you don’t have to have extrasensory perception to pick up on the disapproving vibes.

And, sometimes it goes beyond vibes. At least one DC coffeehouse has started covering up the electrical outlets, following an example set by New York City shop owners who pulled the plug on loafers months ago. The Modern Times Coffeehouse inside Politics & Prose bookstore that was featured in Tuesday’s Confessions column has covered  some of its electric outlets, according to a post on its blog.

The Internet has apparently been an ongoing source of tension at the upper Connecticut Avenue NW coffeehouse for sometime now. The café managers sent me an email this morning with a link to an online discussion they started about a week ago that brought out some strong feelings on both sides. Here’s an excerpt:

"It's a shame that some folks feel that they are being pushed out by a new technology – one, that, honestly, I'm still coming to terms with myself. I understand that this sentiment is partly derived from a slight fear of the new and perhaps a manifestation of an increasing generational gap, but, nonetheless, it is a valid concern that creates conflict, worry, much argument and division. I must also note that many laptop users – writers, students, those working from "home"- here are aware of our spatial (and economic) limitations and try their best to share tables and purchase something every hour or so.

“I guess the spectrum of possibilities range from not offering wireless at all, limiting it to certain times of the day or days of the week, limiting it to certain tables, charging an hourly fee (!), plugging up all the electrical outlets and have people rely on their batteries, to not changing anything at all. I don't want you – laptop users – to feel that we are waging a war against you, but want you to understand this ongoing concern of ours and that we want you to be part of shaping our new policy in this ever-changing landscape and environment.”

Even in these troubled economic times, some groups are thriving  – take organized gangs of shoplifters, for instance.

According to the National Retail Federation’s fifth annual Organized Retail Crime survey, nine out of ten retailers say they’ve been robbed by organized gangs in the last year. And, nearly three-quarters of the stores and restaurants surveyed say the collective thievery is on the rise.

Maybe they should follow Universal Gear’s example and get creative with the crime fighting. Last month, Universal’s owner posted surveillance video from a brazen spree at the 14^th Street clothing joint.

All the publicity from the YouTube posting has really taken a bite out of crime, says Kristopher Johnson, the store’s sales manager. Universal hasn’t had a single group-shoplifting incident since the visuals went online. On the other hand, the police presence at the store has gone way up, says Johnson. (It probably didn’t hurt that the Washington Post ran a Metro-front story about the video.) 

But Johnson doubts YouTube’s crime-fighting abilities over the long haul.

“It’s definitely not a long term solution. But for the last month or so, it’s worked for our store,” he says.

(200 block of West Glebe Road, Alexandria, Dec. 1)

In other words, people are eating out less often, and restaurateurs are paying higher prices. These two trends cannot coexist without some sort of fall out. Jeffrey Buben, owner and executive chef of Bistro Bis and Vidalia, told me recently, "It's when you have inflation on the other end, that's what clobbers you."

Granted, Buben works the high-end side of the restaurant equation, but rising food costs (not to mention rising rents) affect everyone, not just fine-dining owners. I fear this economic great storm will be much nastier than previous ones, and the Zagats should have addressed it.

More as we know it.

In the meantime, let's recount some of the restaurants that have already died this year: Butterfield 9, David Craig, M'Dawg Haute Dogs, Montsouris, New Orleans Bistro, Colorado Kitchen, Meridian Restaurant, Bistro 123, among many others.

Man, it's getting ugly out there. If you have a favorite restaurant, go there. Now.

The media have been making causal jumps between the economic downturn and the rise in luxury commodities, essentially asserting that these industries are "recession-proof": Amazon sales are up. Consignment sales are up. Cosmetic sales are up.  English coffee sales are up. McDonald's sales are up.

Seems to make sense: during rough economic periods people seek solace in indulgent spending, a type of economic escapism.

But linking rising sales in luxury goods to economic hardship is complete bullshit.

"The whole idea of recession-proof is a bit of an oxymoron," said Martin Evans, professor of economics at Georgetown University. "The idea behind it is that income affects price [price elasticity of demand] as everything else stays the same [certis paribus], so if everything remains equal, nothing changes [equilibrium]. This is not a sufficient explanation because everything else is not equal: consumption changes, relative prices changes, and the economy hits every individual differently."

But, wait! McClatchy insists that, "Despite the spooky state of the economy, shoppers are still shelling out money for Halloween candy."

What do you think, professor Evans?

"A rise in candy sales does not mean everyone is buying because the economy is bad. You might as well say that candy sales are up because there hasn't been much rain this season."

It's easier to cast a simple narrative when reporting on something as complicated and jargon-filled as macroeconomics. But is the media's over-simplification also a fabrication?

"Attributing something to a causal mechanism is almost inevitably wrong; it's over-simplifying and presents a false representation of economic links. I'm not saying there is no casual relationship to describe, but to describe trends in terms of the whole explanation is simply misleading."

I guess the recent rise in Russian art is just a coincidence.

Former President Bill Clinton was hesitant to characterize Barack Obama as a "great man" Sunday, a phrase he had no qualms using last week to describe Obama's rival John McCain.

Clinton told NBC's Tom Brokaw that it was only earlier this month in Harlem that he and Obama had their "first conversation." He said he had spoken with Obama before, but only in passing.

Clinton then explained what he meant in characterizing McCain as a "great man."

"I think his greatness is that he keeps trying to come back to service without ever asking people to cut him any slack or feel sorry for him or any of that stuff because he was a POW," Clinton said of the Republican presidential nominee.

What is the matter with this guy? It's like he's a pathological self-saboteur. And then some obvious possibilities reared their jaded heads: If Obama wins in November and has an effective presidency, he'll seek re-election, which would put eight years between Hillary and the White House. If Obama wins in November but taxes us into a recession, Republicans will have an easier time in 2012. But! If McCain wins in November and implements his disastrous defense policies (or OD's on Viagra–either way, he's a one-term guy), Hillary will be poised for a comeback in 2012. (Sarah Palin has about as much chance of going from VP to just "P" in 2012 as Dan Quayle did in 2000–er, '94.)

I'm sure this type of conjecture is/has been floating around the InterTubez, I'm just waiting for an MSM person to hit Clinton with it straight up.

Also, thinking like a pollster pickles my innards.