This is John Batchner, conversation with my colleague Jim McTagg. Jim took a road trip to his old haunts

in Washington, D.C. when he was at Barron's. And he found, to everyone's surprise, certainly around here,

more foot traffic, even in the driving cold rain, more reason to believe that people are

returning to the big city. Here, Jim explains.

He also explains what kind of business is going on to make Washington so busy. Is something to do with a

grease palm? He'll explain. More of this tonight. I mean, they're working in the city.

You know, it was pouring rain in Washington,

so I couldn't really judge.

There were some diehard tourists and their kids

frolicing in the frigid downpour.

I have to say, I think people are coming back into Washington.

It seems a little bit more vibrant.

I belong to a club down there, the Army and Navy Club,

and the membership demand is very strong.

So that's a good sign. So I think, you know, wheeling and dealing in

Washington is alive and well. When I was a writer for Barron's, I used to have something I called

the grease palm index, index loosely. But but essentially I determined that the 10 companies

that paid the most publicly traded companies that paid the most for lobbying in Washington, D.C.

would outperform the S&P 500 almost every year.

That's true.

And I see a lot of lobbying activity in Washington again.

I see a lot of would-be influence peddlers.

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