Economics Update

People are now shocked that Fannie Mae has posted a $2.51 billion loss and cut its dividend. Do I need to quote Claude Raines in Casablanca?

Oil set another new record, $122.73, before settling at $121.84. Any bets on when we hit $130 for the first time?

Finally, we have this tidbit from the Wall Street Journal

And in a more-worrisome trend, borrowing from these retirement plans is surging. At the end of last year, 18% of workers had loans outstanding from their plans, up from 11% in 2006, according to a survey of 2,011 full-time employees released in February by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, a nonprofit corporation funded by Aegon NV's Transamerica Life Insurance Co. With home prices falling nationwide, the loans may be a sign that cash-strapped consumers are raiding their nest eggs to stay afloat, no longer able to tap their houses for cash and up against their credit-card limits.

This is a foreseeable consequence of defined contribution plans, and notwithstanding the Randroid utopian claims, it has always been the problem with having people make a bet in which, if they die young, they win.

It's the YOYO (You're On You're Own) society.