Would shifting attitudes surprise Reagan? (Getty Images)

Government spending, in general, isn’t popular with the average American, but a new poll indicates that support for specific cuts for most programs is lower now than in 1980.
Harris Interactive’s latest flashback poll looks at views about government spending now, compared with 1980. The main question asked, “In [...]

Philanthropists for years have used the “prize model” to spark societal innovations–from space (the X Prize) to the environment (Goldman Prize). The idea is to create a mercenary incentive to create broader social good.
Now a billionaire doctor has come up with what could arguably be the most unusual philanthropic prize of all. It is called [...]

In 2005, when I interviewed Tim Gill, a multimillionaire technology entrepreneur and political activist, he told me that the most efficient use of political dollars was at the local level. Rather than funding national battles, he said, he planned to funnel more of his political dollars to local races and ballot issues. “You have a [...]

The U.S. government is putting up $250 billion from the $700 billion financial-system rescue plan to inject capital directly into banks. Officials hope banks will turn around and start lending more freely to consumers and businesses. But what if the banks simply hoard the capital?
“That is a concern,” said Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, the [...]

Automobile-finance companies pushed hard to get in on the government’s $700 billion financial rescue plan. Now, with the industry’s troubles expected to deepen, they are exploring further moves, including help from the Federal Reserve.
The plan outlined by the U.S. central bank Tuesday to effectively lend to companies to fund day-to-day operations will likely not include [...]

The rate of borrowing by Americans declined for the first time in 10 years during August, a sign of building stress on household finances.
Consumer credit outstanding decreased $7.9 billion in August to $2.577 trillion, according to a Tuesday report from the U.S. Federal Reserve. That follows a $5.2 billion consumer credit increase in July, which [...]

If there was a silver lining in the financial crisis it was the Blingsheviks–the billionaire Russians who could be counted on to overpay and flash their cash even as the rest of the world crashed.
They bought big real-estate spreads in the U.S. and Europe, built the biggest yachts, hosted the most expensive parties and scooped [...]

On the surface, America is embroiled in a new class war. The now-failed Congressional bailout bill has been seen by many voters as the middle-class taxpayer bailing out the wealthy. To quote the widely-watched comedian Wanda Sykes, “it’s welfare for the rich.”
Yet this might be an over-simplification. Maybe American’s don’t hate the rich — they [...]

Following Iceland’s banking meltdown, international financial markets have identified Hungary as another country potentially at risk of a crisis. Hungarian central bank governor András Simor spoke to Journal reporter Marcus Walker about why he thinks the market’s fears about Hungary are wrong.
WSJ: How vulnerable is Hungary to the global financial turmoil?
SIMOR: This crisis has led [...]