Un-preparing the future with the higher education bubble – graduating students with more debt and with degrees that have little demand in the marketplace. For-profits now account for nearly 10 percent of all undergraduate enrollment when in 1997-98 they accounted for 3 percent.
The higher education bubble only continues to spiral out of control because the profits are so good for the massive banking industry that is pushing student loan debt to the trillion dollar level. At the same time the return on investment in education has been slowly diluted as more for-profit degrees enter the market place […]
The walking debt – U.S. public debt now surpasses $15 trillion. The financial sector has wreaked disaster in the American economy. Wall Street banks cause havoc in housing and student loans.
It can be argued that the world is suffering from an epidemic of chronic debt. The financial sector loves to play on words and would rather call certain debt issues as a credit crisis as if it were a temporary thing like a mid-life crisis. This is also similar to renaming junk bonds to something […]
Middle class do worse in current economic recovery – median household income falls faster during recovery than during recession. S&P 500 up 77 percent in recovery while home values are neutral or down in many areas.
Some incredibly disturbing data was released this week showing the continuing crushing body blow to the American middle class. What was striking was that middle class incomes have fallen faster during the supposed recovery from June 2009 to June 2011 than they did in the actual recession from December 2007 to June 2009. Why? First, […]
The wonder years – over 70 percent of GDP comes from personal consumption. For the past decade home equity and credit from other sources fueled growth because of falling household incomes. What happens when credit contracts and home equity evaporates?
In a debt based economy a credit crisis is similar to an uncontrollable virus spreading from house to house. The slow infection hibernated for decades until it went into a pandemic. It is troubling to see how the middle class is slowly being dismantled. However there is one silver lining of the home price correction. […]