The Wash Post Discovers Cheap Euro Airlines…

From today's Wash Post:

Flights as cheap as bus fares are changing the rhythm of European life. Growing numbers of Europeans are buying second homes in other countries because they can afford to travel to them frequently, creating building booms along seasides from Croatia to Portugal. Low airfares have also given rise to Euro commuters—the increasing numbers of people who work in one country and spend weekends with their families in another.

Whole thing, including tales of cross-dressing Brits in Bratislava for bachelor parties, here.

If any of it sounds a year late and a dollar short, it's because former Reasonoid Matt Welch covered this beat over a year ago in his January 2005 piece, "Fly the Frugal Skies: How low-cost airlines have transformed Europe–and what it means for America." The short answer: A much more-interesting Europe–and a challenge to U.S. business as usual.

The Wash Post story was forwarded by reader and movie critic extraordinare Alan Vanneman, who also sent along this fascinating New York Times Magazine story that argues convincingly that the mortgage-interest deduction for homeowners is useless–and essentially bulletproof politically.