Over at Downsizing Government, we focused on the following issues this week:

• The angst over phantom food stamps cuts indicates that those of us who believe the needy aren’t best served by Uncle Sam have our work cut out.
• A response to Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry on federal versus private pay.
• Alaska’s love/​hate relationship with the federal government underscores why weaning the states off their addiction to federal dollars would be difficult.
• The debt-burdened Greek government is planning to sell a large share of the state-owned Hellenic Post. The debt-burdened U.S. government is doing nothing with its struggling U.S. Postal Service.
• Symbolic of this unprecedented federal intervention into the housing market is news that the FHA is insuring mortgages on luxury condos in Manhattan.