I read an interesting opinion column in the Philadelphia Inquirer this morning. The past few days we’ve seen and heard about the success of the Cash-for-Clunkers program. David T. Robinson who is a professor of finance at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business writes about how this program has an unintended economic downside.

To put it very briefly – By encouraging people to spend more on cars, there may be less money left for other stuff and this may actually lengthen this economic downturn. But please read the original since it does a much better job in presenting the reasoning and possible consequences.