Almost everyone in the US seems to know that federal government spending is raging out of control. Last week I noticed not only that consumer spending has been mildly edging up, but I also noticed that it seemed to be up in areas around Washington DC, the epicenter of the federal spending spree. While I believed it was entirely due to the explosive increase in federal government spending rather than signs of economic health in the private sector I didn't quite have the evidence. After looking at BEA data, I now have even more evidence of that. The following chart...