Home » Posts tagged 'student debt'

Tag Archives: student debt

Olduvai
Click on image to purchase

Olduvai III: Catacylsm
Click on image to purchase

Post categories

Post Archives by Category

The U.S. Government Will Inflate To The Bitter End

November 27, 2020

The U.S. Government Will Inflate To The Bitter End

The big news organizations say Joe Biden’s the next president of the USA.  That claims of election fraud and fixing are baseless.  Do you believe them?  Do you trust them?

Regardless, Biden’s acting as if.  He’s talking to foreign leaders.  He’s meeting with vaccine makers.  He’s making big plans.  He’s planning big things.  But, apparently, he’s not progressive enough.

This week, for example, an organization called Justice Democrats accused Biden of appointing corporate-friendly insiders.  They say these “corporate-friendly insiders […] will not help usher in the most progressive Democratic administration in generations.”

Certainly, Biden’s getting plenty of advice.  The political puppet has left many strings to be pulled.  Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer want Biden to erase the first $50,000 of a person’s student loan debt.  According to Schumer, “Joe Biden can do that with the pen as opposed to legislation.”

Will Biden listen to them?  Will he listen to progressive superstar Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?  On Monday, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, tweeted:

“Student loan forgiveness is good, actually.

“We should also push for tuition-free public colleges to avoid this huge debt bubble from financially decimating ppl every generation.  It’s one of the easiest progressive policies to ‘pay for,’ w/ multiple avenues from a Wall St transaction tax to an ultra-wealth tax to cover it.”

Wow!  Biden hasn’t even moved into the White House and things have gone stoopid silly.  Where to begin?

Cut It Off

Without question, the student debt crisis is a disgrace.  There are roughly 45 million student loan borrowers who owe on the order of $1.6 trillion.  Most of this debt is from federal student loans.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Breaking the Chains of Debt: Lessons from Babylonia for Today’s Student Crisis

November 26, 2018

Household Debt Rises By $572 Billion, Ends 2017 At All Time High

February 13, 2018

Household Debt Rises By $572 Billion, Ends 2017 At All Time High

After we first reported last week  that US credit card, student and auto debt all hit record highs in December of 2017…

… it should not come as a surprise that according to the just released latest quarterly household debt and credit report  by the NY Fed, Americans’ debt rose to a new record high in the fourth quarter on the back of an increase in virtually every form of debt: from mortgage, to auto, student and credit card debt (although HELOCs posted a tiny decline).

Aggregate household debt increased for the 14th straight quarter, rising by $193 billion (1.5%) to a new all time high, and as of December 31, 2017, total household indebtedness was $13.15 trillion, an increase of $572 billion from a year ago – the fifth consecutive year of increases – equivalent to 67% of US GDP, versus a high of around 87% in early 2009. After years of deleveraging in the wake of the 2007-09 recession, household debt has risen more than 18% since the trough hit in the spring of 2013.

Some more big picture trends:

  • Mortgage balances, the largest component of household debt, increased by $139 billion during the quarter to $8.88 trillion from Q3 2017.
  • Balances on home equity lines of credit (HELOC) have been slowly declining; they dropped by another $4 billion and now stand at $444 billion.
  • Non-housing balances, which have been increasing steadily for nearly 6 years overall, saw a $58 billion increase in the fourth quarter.
  • Auto loans grew by $8 billion to $1.22 trillion
  • Credit card balances increased by $26 billion to $834 billion
  • Student loans saw a $21 billion increase to $1.38 trillion

There were some red flags of caution: confirming recent negative data from Wells Fargo, and suggesting that the housing recovery is stalling, mortgage originations were at $452 billion, down from $479 billion in the third quarter.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

This Is Another “Subprime” Waiting to Blow

September 11, 2015

This Is Another “Subprime” Waiting to Blow

Dow down 239 points yesterday – or 1.5% – after Japan posted its biggest one-day gain in seven years. This is getting interesting again. If it is just “volatility,” as Wall Street’s shills in the press maintain, it will probably pass soon. Everything will be okay. Back to routine imbecility before the end of the month.

But if these whipsaw movements are heralding a bear market, U.S. stock prices could be cut in half… or more. And they may not recover for 10 to 20 years. (Catch up on the details of our bear market forecast here.)

Bull or Bear?

Which is it? Bull or Bear? No one knows, of course. But it looks to us as though the whole shebang is getting ready to collapse. So far, the correction has trimmed $12.5 trillion off the value of global stock markets. There are a few reasons for stocks to go back up… and many reasons why they might want to go down further.

The 2008 global financial crisis was centered on mortgage debt. There was too much of it that couldn’t be repaid. When the value of the collateral – homes – headed down, the bubble popped.

Today, consumers have about the same amount of debt. But now the excesses are in auto loans and student debt. As you can see below, total auto loans stood at about $781 billion in 2007. Today, they’ve topped $1 trillion. And student loans have more than doubled over that time to $1.3 trillion.

091015 DRE Student and Auto Loan Debt Chart

Again, the collateral is falling in value. Used-car prices fall, as leases expire and more used cars hit the market. As for student debt, the “collateral” is the earning power of the person who borrowed the money.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

Students federation says N.L. grant plan should be adopted nationally

August 17, 2015

Students federation says N.L. grant plan should be adopted nationally

The Canadian Federation of Students wants to put growing education debt on the federal election radar and says other governments should follow Newfoundland and Labrador’s shift to student grants instead of loans.

“We have a crisis in Canada when it comes to overall student debt burdens,” said national chairperson Bilan Arte.

“Without a deliberate, national plan around post-secondary education and youth employment, we are going to see this generation failed again,” she said in an interview.

“As students, we cannot stand for that.”

Daniel Rumbolt is about to start his fourth year at Memorial University of Newfoundland in fine arts and hopes to become a professor. He works three part-time jobs in addition to a full course load. Still, he expects to rack up about $16,000 in student loans by next spring, he said in an interview.

Provincial grants will save him at least $3,000. Rumbolt said it’s a huge morale boost that’s inspiring students to stay in the province after graduation.

“I think people are becoming more and more motivated to support the province that’s supporting us.”

Current loans system stifling graduates, says CFS

Arte said Newfoundland and Labrador’s shift to grants should be copied across the country. She called the current system of federal and provincial funding an “ineffective” approach that’s putting higher learning out of reach as graduates shoulder historic debt loads.

The federation argues what is now spent running the Canada Student Loans Program, related tax credits and savings schemes should be shifted to up front grants.

Many graduates are typically too broke to even think about cars, houses or other economy-driving investments, Arte said.

“We’re just thinking about how to pay next month’s bills.”

 

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Treasury’s Worst-Case Scenario: Over $3.3 Trillion In Student Loans In A Decade | Zero Hedge

December 10, 2014

The Treasury’s Worst-Case Scenario: Over $3.3 Trillion In Student Loans In A Decade | Zero Hedge.

One of the recurring topics on Zero Hedge over the past 3 years has been the relentless increase in student loans which, as a result of their cumulative default and loss severity (including those loans which are “merely” in deferment and forbearance) has surpassed the subprime bubble in terms of size.

In fact, as the following table from the TBAC shows, the actual default risk from student loans is several orders of magnitude above the 9% student loans which the Fed has revealed as currently “in default”, as one has to add those 12% of loans in deferment and 11% in forbearance to the entire risk pool. In short: a third of all student loans are likely to end up unrepaid!

Why is this number a problem? Because as the TBAC also forecasts, in its worst economic case scenario for the millennial generation (which sadly, based on recent employment and income trends for America’s young adults is more like the base case scenario), total student loans, which currently stand a little over $1 trillion (or more than all the credit card debt in America), is set to triple in just the next decade, hitting a whopping $3.3 trillion by 2024.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Olduvai IV: Courage
Click on image to read excerpts

Olduvai II: Exodus
Click on image to purchase

Click on image to purchase @ FriesenPress