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posted by martyb on Thursday May 18 2017, @09:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-owe,-I-owe,-it's-off-to-work-I-go dept.

Another day, another record broken.

The debt held by US households has surpassed its pre-2008 record, several financial outlets note. A peculiar spotlight in the associated numbers falls on student loans, where delinquencies are multiple times higher than for other debt types: 10 percent is the norm.

That's some pretty troubling news for the economy [and wider society], notes Rana Foroohar at sister outlet the Financial Times. First off, there's the association between the rise in student debt, and a decrease in home ownership for young people. This connection is exacerbated by them millennials increasingly turning towards income-based repayment programmes, which spread out the debt over more years.

Secondly, the level of student debt delinquencies ain't changing: the 10 percent figure is a near-constant over the past 4-5 years. People who've ever had a delinquency -- even if they recover -- have a much lower rate of home ownership at age 30 as compared to their non-defaulted compatriots. Not having a home means not filling it with stuff, and filling with stuff is kinda what the economy is based on.

Then, thirdly, it's not only students that are hit by student debt: increasingly, their parents are taking on debt too, to help out. Fuel for that debt sandwich is something peculiar: the rate of inflation in college admission costs is three times higher than the consumer price index. Must be that college professors wages have increased a lot, then.

Given that boomers and their millennial offspring are the two largest voting blocks in the US, a snappy future president-elect might consider raising the issue a bit.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by kaszz on Thursday May 18 2017, @11:03PM (4 children)

    by kaszz (4211) on Thursday May 18 2017, @11:03PM (#511883) Journal

    Great, so now we can expect a new 2008 type recession? and what happens then. A lot of assets will be sold for CHEAP in a clearance sale in disguise. Bought by those that were rich or frugal. Then the economy gets better again magically. So that those that got assets for cheap from the last sale (recession) can once again buy cheap from people with too much debt and put more people into debt slavery.

    See a common theme here?

    Cheap money, price increases and then recession is a recipe for robbery and slavery. If you need to work or even playing the securities market. It will not match the power of lending out money you just printed for rent. You can't compete with the bank(s) in making money. It's setup for you to fail.

    Don't get into debt, it's a TRAP. Don't try to outdo the bank but exploit the economic tides. Secure your assets against inflation and monetary manipulation.

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @02:03AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @02:03AM (#511940)

    First, quit talking as if that slump is over.
    The "recovery" that Lamestream Media keeps yammering about is a fraud.
    The actual economy in the USA is still crawling along on its hands and knees. [google.com]
    That hasn't even gotten back to the 2007 levels of activity--forget the kind of thing that was going on in 2000.

    This is what happens when Capitalists screw The Working Class and don't make sure ordinary people have money to spend into the economy.
    The Capitalists' "brilliant" plan to keep wages at 1968 levels while per-worker productivity continues its increase is what got us to this point.

    Next, that's not a "recession"--unless you're still using the old completely-broken way to define that.
    What's going on in the casino is not at all indicative of what's happening in the high street.

    Sure the already-rich have money, allowing their gambling on the speculators' market, continually bidding up the price of each other's pieces of paper.

    Meanwhile, the labor non-participation rate has been stuck at 23 percent for years and years.
    When that happened in 1929 - 1933 on Hoover's watch, it was called A DEPRESSION.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday May 19 2017, @03:45AM (2 children)

      by kaszz (4211) on Friday May 19 2017, @03:45AM (#511994) Journal

      Perhaps the recovery is more like the economy isn't in rapid decline. And has entered a kind of steady state. Which means that economic planning is a lot easier. Seems the way out is to either find a beneficial employer or start ones own business. Not necessarily a company. Just making sure the productivity isn't wasted.
      Some places have way lower unemployment than 23% so for them the situation is kind of back to normal or even good times.

      Unlike in 1929, people can at least get food stamps I presume?

      And at least we can agree on that parts of the upper strata of society is screwing most other people? ;) How it's done and how to counteract it may differ in opinion. But at least from my point of view is that by decimating their tools of power impact on your life. It enables the opportunity to thrive.

      I think there's some common threads:
        * Avoid debt (maybe.. with exception for a house)
        * Don't enter a race against the bank in spending power (on property etc)
        * Keep your assets out of reach for inflation or currency swings (and tax)
        * Make sure that the output of work benefits you, like bartering the result of your effort rather than the bare time

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @04:56AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @04:56AM (#512023)

        Brilliant analysis, and I love how your solution to unemployment can be summarized as "just get a job."

        • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday May 19 2017, @02:00PM

          by kaszz (4211) on Friday May 19 2017, @02:00PM (#512173) Journal

          If your options for people willing to pay for your time is limited and you can't educate yourself out of that. Well that sucks. No patent solution to that.