The winners and the losers

Winner: When it comes to student loans, Utahns have a 2.1 percent default rate, which is the lowest in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Nationally, the rate is 6.7 percent. BYU students with loans have a remarkably low 0.4 percent default rate. These figures speak well of the state, its students and the local economy. It also argues strongly against efforts in Washington to make all student loans federal. The local approach — Utah has programs in place to help students repay what they borrowed — seems to be working just fine.

Loser: The White House says the stimulus package so far has saved or created 650,000 jobs, of which 6,598 were in Utah. As long as people are pulling numbers out of thin air, here's one: 78.6 percent of all such government reports are complete fabrications. Is that true? Who knows? But you can be sure the White House jobs figures don't tell the whole story, either. Interestingly, these were published about the same time USA Today reported this week that the cash-for-clunkers program ended up costing American taxpayers $24,000 per car. The amount granted for each vehicle turned in was $4,500. If anyone can figure out how an organization can run numbers like that and still declare a net gain to the economy, they deserve either a Nobel Prize for economics or a contract to do magic shows in Las Vegas.

Winner: Lane Beattie, the president and chief executive officer of the Salt Lake Chamber, has an interesting take on how Utah can weather the current economic storm. In a speech this week, he said the state needs to raise certain taxes, such as for gasoline, restore the full sales tax on food, impose severance taxes on coal and divert money set aside for water development. We aren't sure about the food tax, and the fuel tax may harm the economy more than help. But at least Beattie is raising difficult questions and finding workable answers. The Legislature can't rely on cuts alone to close its budget deficit this year.