Small silhouette of Doug Wolkon Mini-Stock Markets, Renewable Energy, Stable Rents, Local Trade, and Solar Currency emerge in a timeless economic system where Pluralism and Localism transcend Capitalism.
Welcome to Pluranomics, the economics of many.

Sallie Mae

Yoga & Off-Balance Sheet Financing

Posted by Doug Wolkon on April 13, 2008 at 9:40 pm

The word “balance” has significant meaning here. When you take something “off-balance,” you are doing just that. In other words, balance is good (think yoga or buddhism), off-balance (think checkbook) is not good. On that note, what do you call Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Sallie Mae. Do they qualify as “off-balance sheet financing?” How about the Bear Stearns portfolio. The U.S. government did about 36 hours of due diligence on that one, is that one off-balance sheet too? Continued »

{0 Comments}

Educated Inflation

Posted by Doug Wolkon on December 20, 2007 at 8:36 pm

With Sallie Mae in trouble, does that mean that less student loans at low interest rates may be available in the future? After all, they are the largest student lenders with $127 billion of debt outstanding (according to Wiki). Or can we expect the Wizard of Oz to step in and fix the lending rate since the loans are “federally guaranteed”. Continued »

{0 Comments}