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Post-finance New York
Megan McArdle — Ryan Avent hopes that New York City will take this opportunity to refocus its policy on the non-financial industry:  introducing revenue raising measures like congestion pricing, and making it possible to build a lot of new affordable housing.  This is a nice wish list.  But it's obviously from an outsider.  Any native New Yorker can tell you that the financial slump has made these things less likely. ...

New York's Transit Crisis, a Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax, and the Rail Fetish
The American Scene — Congestion pricing.* It’s fairly rare that I agree with Ryan Avent rather than with Megan McArdle, but the fact that the Ravitch Plan — which called for tolls on the East River and Harlem River bridges and a region-wde payroll tax — was ever taken seriously suggests to me that performance parking, at the very least, is a realistic possibility. The congestion charge as originally conceived might not fly, but some version of it, say variable tolls on the East River bridges, just might. I’ve seen one excellent alternative ...