"After a three-decade run, the free-market philosophies of (Chicago economist Milton) Friedman that shaped U.S. Policy are being eclipsed by the pro- government ideas of (James) Tobin, the late Yale economist and Nobel Laureate who brought John Maynard Keynes into the modern era. Tobin’s stamp is on the $787 billion stimulus signed by President Barack Obama, former students and colleagues say. His philosophies are influencing Austan Goolsbee, a former Tobin student advising Obama, and Ben S. Bernanke, head of the Federal Reserve," writes Bloomberg here. 

Friedman believed the government could, at best, use monetary policy to keep interest rates stable so markets could develop naturally to the public benefit. Tobin believed it was government's job to make sure everyone is working.

For the past year, as real estate markets in most of the country have collapsed, Philadelphia commercial real estate people have kept telling each other, in quarterly surveys and industry gatherings, that, since the market didn't get too hot here, it doesn't have to get too cold, either. And that vacancies are still below 10%. And that maybe things will turn around soon.

I asked my old schoolmate Andy Margolis, of A Margolis Realty Co, if that's really so. He sent me to Cushman & Wakefield Inc.'s William J. Hirschfeld, listing agent for One Liberty Place, and Roger McManimon, listing agent for the Verizon tower at 1717 Arch, both of whom also represent tenants, for a reality check.

"It's tough to really pinpoint lease comparables, because leases aren't getting closed," said Hirschfeld. "There's such a total lack of activity, not only in the leasing market, but in the sale market also.

"Landlords are pointing to the last available statistics and saying, 'We're in a great spot. No reason to reduce rental rates.' But the tenants read the newspapers, and they know it's all doom and gloom in the national market. They assume the market in Philadelphia must be a mirror image of that. What results is a large disconnect."

It's all too familiar in Philadelphia, where rents haven't much changed in 20 years, so there's been little incentive to build new towers. The "trophy" or "A+" buildings like One Liberty and 1717 Arch have leased suites in the mid-$30s per square foot, which is a little below the $36-38 Liberty Place asked when it opened in 1986. By contrast, many other Center City buildings are stuck in the mid-to-high $20s.

"We've both been doing this for 20 years," said McManimon. "Whenever the market weakened, tenant brokers always advised tenants to wait til the last minute. The landlords would be throwing concessions. The longer you waited, the better deal you got. Then, when the market peaked, they'd tell their clients they could lose the deal, there were other tenants looking.

"Well, now we're betwixt and between." As long as there aren't too many vacancies, landlords still hope they can boost rents a little, and make it possible to attract new construction at higher rental rates. Meanwhile, tenants aren't moving; they hope if they hold on a little, they can get a better deal. It's like the banks and investment houses, where everyone knows their loans and bonds aren't worth what they paid, but they'd still like to postpone the day of reckoning, hoping prices will come back before they have to write off losses. 

Said McManimon, "Everyone is waiting for something to happen." No wonder we're slowing down.

Wegmans is hiring for its new Collegeville store -- and yes, they plan to sell beer.

"Wegmans is beginning the process of hiring full-time employees for its new Collegeville store (in Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County) set to open in October," the Rochester, NY-based chain says. "Available positions include everything from cashiers and customer service to culinary professionals. The store will employ approximately 600 people, 550 of whom will be hired locally."

Wegmans wants would-be fulltime workers to apply online at www.wegmans.com/careers, go to Job Listings, and to Collegeville. Why is Wegmans building now, with the economy so slow? "We've been working on the location," at US 422 and PA 29 near the Wyeth labs, "since before the downturn. And everyone has to eat," Blaine Forkell, the manager who'll open the store, told me. He opened earlier Wegmans in Downingtown (2003) and Warrington (2006) since the company decided on its current low-price, limited-brands big-store model.

Wegmans employs around 37,000 at 72 stores. Most are in sleepy upstate Pennsylvania and New York towns like Erie, Bethlehem, Syracuse, and Buffalo, but increasingly it's been adding large stores in East Coast suburbs like Cherry Hill, Downingtown, and Manassas, Va.

It's avoided big cities like Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., however. "Our stores are large -- 100,000 square feet plus," said spokeswoman Jo Natale. "Finding sites in large cities that are able to accomodate a store our size with parking is almost impossible."

Natale said pay and benefits at the nonunion chain are "comparable to, or exceed, that of our competitors," which in the Philadelphia area are led by the unionized Acme and ShopRite chains. One difference: while union supermarket workers can qualify for traditional guaranteed pensions, Wegmans has only a 401(k) worker-directed retirement plan. 

District attorney Lynne Abraham last week busted 15 alleged house thieves accused of stealing and selling 82 rowhomes they didn't own, and suggested there may be many more.

We tooled around the Society Hill block were Bernsten, a steel wholesaler, has lived since 1976. I asked how he refills -- it only goes 60 to 120 miles between plug-ins, depending partly on how fat you are. He jumped on the sidewalk, whipped out a rubber cable, jammed one end into a receptor where the gas cap ought to be, and plugged the other into a three-prong outlet by the real estate office at the corner of Second and Delancey, across the street from the old Man Full of Trouble tavern. "Fill 'er up."

It's a little noisier than my son's girlfriend's silent Prius, but it's also a lot cheaper, if Bernsten delivers at the $16,000 to $18,000 he's advertising. The Chinese-built body is fitted with an American drivetrain, which Bernsten says meets federal Low-Speed Vehicle standards. It's still not street-legal in Pennsylvania -- Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Bucks, is proposing a law to change that -- but you can drive them in Jersey, Delaware and most other states at up to 45 mph.

Bernsten's BG Automotive Group Ltd. wants to mass-produce this city car. He's been scouting plant sites in southeast PA and in Delaware, and he says he's gotten inquiries from Tennessee and other states. He'll need cash -- he says he's talked to HSBC and Citibank -- they're waiting for federal loan guarantees.

Til then, Bernsten's fitting together a couple more prototypes, and passing the word: "We'll have it on display at the Franklin Institute for Earth Day."

Shares of SLM Corp. (Sallie Mae) fell more than 40%, to $5, in trading today after President Obama's new budget squeezed out the private student-lending subsidy program, in favor of direct student loans by the government, which Obama says will save taxpayers $4 billion+ each year.

"This announcement essentially blindsided the industry -- ourselves included," FBR Capital Markets analyst Matt Snowling told investors in a note. He said the government isn't ready to replace Sallie Mae and other private student lenders, and there's likely to be a battle in Congress -- but Obama's target puts a "cloud" over the industry.

Candidate Obama promised to raise more taxes from Americans making over a quarter-million a year, and reduce them for everyone else, while fixing the financial system, subsidizing health care and fighting land wars in Asia.

Sure enough,  President Obama's new $3.5 trillion budget for 2010 calls for $200 billion in higher tax collection this year, mostly from erasing Bush income and capital gains cuts on Americans making over $250,000, and higher corporate and oil taxes. The deficit is still over $1 trillion, though it's down from this year's $1.7T.

See the 2010 budget here -- as with President Bush's budgets you have to dig through the rhetoric to get to the policy changes -- for the big picture, summary tables begin on Page 113.

Over the next 10 years, "President Barack Obama proposed almost $1 trillion in higher taxes on the 2.6 million highest- earning Americans, Wall Street financiers, U.S.-based multinational corporations, and oil companies to pay for permanent tax breaks for lower earners," writes Bloomberg here.