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Washington's Wealth Boom
Take a look at this map. The areas shaded in red are the 100 wealthiest counties in America according to per capita income. At first glance, it's a little misleading, because in the American West, counties tend to be larger in geographic area. But look closely, and you'll see that after the New York City metropolitan area, the largest cluster of wealth in the U.S. is huddled around Washington, D.C.

If we look at household income, the picture grows starker. After the 2000 Census, the richest county in America was Douglas County, Colorado. By 2007, Douglas County had fallen to sixth. The new top three are now Loudon County, Virginia; Fairfax County, Virginia; and Howard County, Maryland. All three are suburbs or exurbs of Washington, D.C. In 2000, 14 of the 100 richest counties were in the Washington, D.C., area. In 2007, it was nine of the richest 20.

All of this is fine if you happen to live in the D.C. area. It's not so great for the country as a whole.

While the D.C. metro area hasn't completely escaped the recession, it's doing much better than most everywhere else. Real estate advisers Grub & Ellis Company recently ranked the D.C. metro area the top market in the country for commercial real estate investment. Investment advisers are high on D.C. area real estate even in down times, because they know the federal government's only going to get bigger. That means more federal employees, more grantees and contractors, and more wealthy lawyers and lobbyists setting up shop inside the Beltway — both to get a piece of the federal budget (or, more recently, the $7 trillion-and-growing pot of federal bailout honey), and, as the federal regulatory state expands, to lobby for regulations most favorable (or, least unfavorable) for their clients.

The problem is that, save for the tech corridor in D.C.'s Virginia exurbs, the Washington Metro area doesn't actually produce anything. Washington doesn't create wealth, it just moves it around — redistributes it. As government grows and takes control of more and more of the private economy — either through spending, regulation, or taxes — more and more wealth that's created elsewhere comes to Washington to be devoured.

The Washington wealth boom is the result of the massive expansion in government over the last 10 years, which has populated the region with an increase in well-paid federal employees, and wealthy federal contractors and lobbyists....

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You live in nation's richest counties
WASHINGTON - The D.C. area makes plenty of Top 10 lists, and this one shows its residents make the big bucks.

According to a new report from Newsweek, seven of the nation's 10 richest counties are in this region.

Virginia's Loudoun County takes home the top spot, with its median household income exceeding $114,000 per year. Seventeen percent of Loudoun households make more than $200,000, while only 16 percent earn less than the national average household income of $50,000.

The survey, based on 2009 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, names Loudoun neighbor Fairfax County the No. 2 breadwinner in the country. The county was the first in America to hit six figures with its median household income, and more than half its homes make more than that number now.

"Fairfax County has traditionally been home away from home for many diplomats and officials who want to live in a rural community close to Washington, D.C.," Newsweek explains. ...