The big news this morning is that, in order to help inject “confidence” into the economic outlook, the Fed is offering a $200 billion plan for increased liquidity. Of course, most of this help goes to mortgage lenders who got into trouble with their subprime lending practices.
The move is par for the course in terms of the numerous efforts in recent months to produce “economic stimulus.” And while “economic stimulus” includes tax rebates, mortgage rate freezes and modifying home loan terms, one thing it doesn’t include is American jobs.
The Pentagon just announced that instead of awarding a tanker contract to …read more

This has been a big week for “economic stimulus.” The Fed announced an emergency rate cut on Tuesday and yesterday Congress unveiled a tax rebate package. But will it really help? The numbers are different from the $500 tax rebate that was being floated earlier.
Instead, some working Americans will get $300 and others will get $600. Some joint filers will get $1,200. It sounds nice, but as I’ve been saying for a while, it’s not really practical. Our government is already running a deficit and most people don’t spend tax rebates and refunds on things that would help them financially.
The …read more