Not much happened yesterday. The Dow fell 47 points. The newspapers attributed the reversal to surprisingly low consumer confidence numbers. Apparently, consumers aren’t so sure this crisis is over. As we reported yesterday, they’re saving money… maybe even at an 8% rate.

You know the old saying about teaching a man to fish, as opposed to just giving him a fish. Well, the state of the US Social Security system has led me to propose to you a new version of the fish proverb: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a politician to fish and he’ll steal your pole”.