It’s been interesting lately. For some reason pundits have decided that the one measure of the job someone is doing happens to be the Dow. Which is kind of silly. Even as a measure of the economy, I’m not sure how much credence we should lend the Dow. After all, it is a reflection about how Wall Street feels. And, quite frankly, I’m wondering if Wall Street is a little upset that instead of focusing mainly on big firms, Obama seems determined to do something for the middle class as well. Sure, he’s still throwing money at the banks. But …read more

One of the bummer things about President Barack Obama’s proposed budget changes is the effect on student loan financing. In order to increase the amount of money available for grants, without increasing the federal deficit by very much, Obama is proposing changes to the way lenders are subsidized for making low interest student loans. This is one of the few items of disagreement I have with Obama’s economic policies.
The end to low interest student loans?
Right now, in order to encourage lenders to offer rock-bottom interest rates on student loans, the government hands out subsidies. Now, though, without these subsidies, lenders …read more

As many regular readers know, I’m not a big fan of recent “economic stimulus” efforts. They tend to be band-aids rather than solutions. And Jennifer Hofmann at My Organized Biz asked me what I would do.
So here it is:
There is no way for the government to fix the economy. And it can’t happen in a short period of time. These things are cyclical. Downcycles are inevitable. Trying to prevent them at all actually makes the economy more unstable, as we’ve seen since the last economic stimulus a few years ago (during G.W. Bush’s first four years). But if the government …read more