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Graduating to service debt.

Nearly unlimited student loan availability has removed the price signals that would have otherwise kept prices for college in check. Thus the price for college is outpacing inflation by as much as five-to-one.

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S&P’s shot across the bow.

Yesterday, Standard & Poor’s issued a negative outlook on the sovereign debt of the United States. Thus the U.S. joins an ignominious pantheon of bankrupt companies and failed socialist states.

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Hats off to Paul Ryan.

House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan went to a Washington, D.C. tattoo parlor and had a giant target tattooed on his forehead. Or so it is going to seem in the coming weeks.

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The public/private disconnect.

I got an email from the superintendent of the school district where my younger daughter goes to school talking about the impact of state budget funding cuts.

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The magnitude of the problem.

House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan has unveiled a proposed budget for fiscal year 2012. That proposal would cut more than $6 billion in federal spending over ten years.

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Disturbing parallels.

Carter lacked the charisma of Obama, good news for Obama, because the parallels between them should otherwise be of great concern to Obama.

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It’s time to shut ‘er down.

Republicans may wish to avoid a fight with Democrats that results in a government shutdown. But wishing not to fight and refusing to fight are two different things. It’s time to fight.

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Incoherent.

President Obama recently gave a speech in Brazil encouraging them to develop offshore oil reserves and promising to be their “best customer” once the oil is on the market.

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Another war?

A decisive, overwhelming victory in the greater Middle East would cost hundreds of billions of dollars and many thousands of lives.

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Re-living the future.

I’m beginning to feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. We still find ourselves facing $4.00 gasoline as if we are condemned to live the same dysfunctional day over and over.