Your customized headlines for Mon, Apr 23, 2012

The flat-screen television embedded in the mahogany partition in the lobby of the Courtyard Washington Dupont Circle was not always there. Neither was the granite communal table surrounded by red leather bar stools — a staple of the hotel's dining area.

The U.S. military may spend $1 billion during the next decade to piggyback its communications equipment onto commercial satellites.

The Air Force, which plans to ask companies for contract bids as early as September, has heard from "numerous'' satellite operators and manufacturers interested in the deal, said George Sullivan, a contract specialist for the service. Boeing and Loral Space & Communications expect to compete, company executives said.

On these pages, I have cast a rather skeptical eye on all matters financial. I have mocked the housing recovery calls, critiqued the valuation of Facebook, despised the robo-signing settlement, urged caution on the Black Friday retail hype. The silliness coming out of Wall Street is much like a carnival barker urging us to play one more of "games of skill." All of which goes to say I am not your run-of-the-mill perma-bull or economic cheerleader. Readers, in fact, have called me a curmudgeon.

There's growing evidence that low economic growth tends to accompany high levels of government debt, leading many policymakers to believe that high debt itself impedes growth. But Ugo Panizza and Andrea Presbitero say many policymakers are misunderstanding what's really going on, as they explain in a new paper for VoxEU:

Today is Earth Day, which typically means a smorgasbord of stories about "green" cat litter and cleaning products. Here at Wonkblog, though, it's an excuse to revisit a favorite old research paper — one that explores what's known as the "environmentalist's paradox."