Ok, someone has to explain this to me. I spent part of the morning talking with friends who cover the State House, and they’re as confused as I am: How, exactly, will Gov. Deval Patrick justify spending $3.8 billion to fix some 411 bridges in the Commonwealth?
Oh, you haven’t heard? Well settle in, friends. The governor, god bless him, wants to repair our deteriorating bridges — a plan he’s announcing today during a speech at MIT. And anyone who regularly travels over the Longfellow probably won’t argue. But good intentions don’t always make for good government, especially when Massachusetts is running a $1 billion-plus deficit.
Put another way, when you look in your wallet and realize you’re not only flat broke, but that you also owe a lot of people a lot of money, how do you talk yourself into a spending spree? The answer is simple, of course: you find new lenders.
You may have heard this already, but Massachusetts is hurting for money. Now that we won’t have casinos anytime soon, the Legislature is left to scramble for ways to balance the budget because if it doesn’t, cities and towns won’t get the aid they need to keep services running.
Cities and towns will be delighted to hear that the Massachusetts State Lottery is on its way to a record-setting year, since much of their aid comes from revenues. But it may spell more trouble than relief.
We know we have an inner child, largely because we still get a chuckle out of sophomoric jokes. But the Globe shocked us today with the news that we also have an “inner Yankee.” We love an L.L. Bean Boat and Tote as much as anyone, but an austere lifestyle isn’t in our nature.
Perhaps the most inner-Yankeeless entity in these troubled economic times is the MBTA. Despite General Manager Dan Grabauskas’ assertion that the agency is “broke,” the agency’s board is expected to approve $3.75 billion in capital improvements.
The fallout from the subprime mortgage collapse has hit Boston hard. Entire neighborhoods have been abandoned by homeowners who fell behind on their payments, and the economic impact of questionable loans is spreading beyond the real estate market. Now the Turnpike Authority is in trouble with a variable-rate loan, and it can’t walk away from the 138-mile roadway it’s responsible for.
Student loans are an unfortunate part of life for many young professionals. Teenagers are lured to colleges with great facilities and professors, and don’t pay much thought to the tens of thousands of dollars they borrow to get away from mom and dad get an education until they’re out of college and start paying it back.
Next semester, Massachusetts college students may not need to worry about student loan debt, and not because Harvard freed up its endowment. Rather, it’s because the non-profit state organization that helps students and parents finance a college education can’t find any money to loan.
Back in our high school days, our parents were dismayed to see us leaning toward a career in the arts. Gone were the dreams of lavish vacations paid for by their child’s law firm. Instead, they resigned themselves to the fact that they could never buy a smaller home because we’d probably move back home when we fell on our faces.
Whenever my alma mater asks me for donations, it’s all I can do not to laugh at the poor undergrad who had the misfortune of calling. I don’t scoff because I didn’t get a good education. I turn them down as gently as possible because I’m going to be paying off my liberal arts degree until 2019.
I have a similar reaction when I read articles about the declining number of young adults who are buying homes. It’s not that we don’t want to. We just can’t afford to buy a home with tens of thousands of dollars in student debt already hanging over us.
Yet Rhode Island’s governor has called for an extreme belt-tightening, while Gov. Deval Patrick is planning new ways to spend money the state doesn’t have.
Ok, someone has to explain this to me. I spent part of the morning talking with friends who cover the State House, and they’re as confused as I am: How, exactly, will Gov. Deval Patrick justify spending $3.8 billion to fix some 411 bridges in the Commonwealth?
You may have heard this already, but Massachusetts is 
We know we have an inner child, largely because we still get a chuckle out of sophomoric jokes. But the Globe shocked us today with the news that we also have an “
The fallout from the subprime mortgage collapse has hit Boston hard. 
Student loans are an 
Back in our high school days, our parents were dismayed to see us leaning toward a career in the arts. Gone were the dreams of lavish vacations paid for by their child’s law firm. Instead, they resigned themselves to the fact that they could never buy a smaller home because we’d probably move back home when we fell on our faces.
Whenever my alma mater asks me for donations, it’s all I can do not to laugh at the poor undergrad who had the misfortune of calling. I don’t scoff because I didn’t get a good education. I turn them down as gently as possible because I’m going to be paying off my liberal arts degree until 2019.
The oncoming recession might actually be good for the February issue of Boston magazine. Especially if people in finance read it. All this talk about 
With all the 
We here at Boston Daily aren’t great financial wizards. Nor are we particularly great at math. (Our strengths are listening and making you laugh.)