Economic effects:

When it comes to talk about the economic future of America, it seems to revolve around a few key elements. There is talk of depression, recession, bailouts and instability. In light of recent occurrences on Wall Street, to what degree will Boise State University and its students be affected by the current economic crisis?

Allen Dalton, adjunct professor of economics at Boise State, said that there will definitely be some hard times in America’s economic future.

Slow growth of nominal income (income that has not been adjusted for inflation and decreased buying power), a small rise in unemployment rates and a greater need for education were some things he said could be expected as a result of the current status of the nation’s economy.

Dalton also said a recession is likely.

“I think that we’re in for some times of slow growth,” he said. “I don’t think we’re going to have a depression, but we’re probably going to have a recession. It’s going to take some time to work out all these bad investments.”

Dalton also addressed rising unemployment rates.

“Some people are going to lose jobs,” he said. “Whenever you have a decreased capital you are going to have decreased labor.”

Student response to the current state of the economy seems to echo Dalton’s remarks.

“You could lose your job the next day,” Devron Prescott, president of the Entrepreneur Club, said. “Just about every industry is going to be affected by the economy. I think you need to have a plan in place with more than one string of income.”

Prescott went on to say that “There’s a lot of students that have temporary jobs and they’ll have a different job in the summer . and I guess what I’m saying is with the economy changing like that there’s not going to be a lot of people hiring.”

Another thing to remember is the ever-present issue of the federal government’s Wall Street bailout.

Dalton said that some economists feel that by bailing out Wall Street, the federal government may be able to restore confidence in creditors though he himself disagrees with this notion.

“We need to make the necessary adjustments,” Dalton said. “What this [bailout] is doing is delaying the adjustments while at the same time providing a massive subsidy to Wall Street.”

Essentially, Dalton said, the rules need to be rewritten.

“It’s not regulation versus deregulation, but what kind of regulation. That’s the problem we have had in the United States over the past few years under both Clinton and Bush.”

When asked what advice, if any, he could offer to Boise State students, Dalton suggested cutting up credit cards and saving where possible.

“Fortunately, most students don’t have a lot of debt,” he said. “They don’t drive brand new cars and they typically don’t have mortgages so they can largely expect to remain essentially unaffected.”

An issue that may be on the minds of students is how the economy will affect college loans.

“I think it’s going to be more difficult for students to get loans to go to college,” President of the International Business Association Matt Gilkerson said.

“And I don’t see anything in the near future as far as colleges lowering tuition or making it easy for students to get into college . We need to change our way of thought of ‘just charge to the credit card’. that’s what got us into this mess.”

News Editor Colby Stream contributed to this piece.

C. COLT CRANE
Arbiter Journalist

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