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Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

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Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#201

Post by 0xffff2 »

georgeecollins wrote: post #196
gesman wrote: post #11

Recent reports from the Treasury Department show that the US government owns nearly $1.5 trillion in student loans. That’s pretty sad when you think about it: the US government’s #1 financial asset is debt owed by tens of millions of its young people for university education that didn’t even necessarily qualify them for a real career. Millennials are the most educated generation in history. Yet there are record numbe…

" The Board of Trustees of Social Security tells us that the program is going to completely run out of money within the next 15 years. " Is very misleading. Social Security is not a bank account, it is an insurance (you can get it at any time, and you get it simply because you paid in) where people are constantly paying in and out. In 17 years* the Social Security system will probably have to cut benefits by 23% unle…

I assume you actually mean "raise the retirement age"? Raising the retirement rate would mean paying out more money, not less.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#202

Post by JBlue42 »

adreamingsoul wrote: post #181
JBlue42 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take the weekend off from the news, or longer. Find a good, non-political book and dive in. I've found it pretty easy to get into a negative spiral when reading about all the shit going on. Our awareness of the myriad problems and the seeming political and cultural insurmountability of them don't do our minds any favors.

Agreed. I have several books on timber framing that I need to finish.

Nice. Nothing like concentrating on a handicraft to filter out the noise as well. Good luck and have a great weekend.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#203

Post by zhjansbnas »

mikestew wrote: post #59
marcelluspye wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>pass it down to their heirs. AFAIK, (and I'm a pretty ignorant fellow) debt in America isn't passed down, the creditors just take what they're owed out of a dead person's estate before its divied up by a will. So there could be a big "pop" if a bunch of people with lots of student loan debt and no assets die.

the creditors just take what they're owed out of a dead person's estate You mean the estate that contains value I would otherwise get the full value of were it not for the student loan debt that was taken out? The debt is most certainly passed down, it's just abstracted away a bit. The only way the debt doesn't get passed down is if the debtor dies penniless. Another way to put it is if the creditor extracts anything…

No, the money materialized from the lender when the loan was taken out. Some of the money might be recouped before or upon the death of the borrower - some might never be recouped.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#204

Post by [deleted] »

pdelbarba wrote: post #134
throwaway30yo wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Millenial here. I think things are better then you think. Failing government systems? Have always existed. Unaffordable education? Never went, no idea. Online education still free. Limited Housing and Land? Flyover country, tons of cheap housing and land. Degrading Climate? Yes. But even the most pessimistic projections are unlikely to effect my life. Its a great time to be alive. Country not at war, unemployment is…

Come to Colorado. Formerly the apex of flyover real estate. Now the location of million dollar 2000sqft houses. I see maps from as late as a decade ago with nothing on them where whole cities now exist.

[deleted]

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#205

Post by bluntfang »

MollyR wrote: post #37

US government backed student loans were a huge mistake. We needed something like rent control enforced on public universities, for government backed loans. But we didn't. So it created a situation that caused an enormous amount of millennials to be taken advantage of by universities and colleges. Those universities and colleges pumped full of government loan cash became increasingly predatory. They increased their ad…

>worthless degrees like gender studies

Worthless eh? I bet if companies Uber hired some of these gender studies majors they might not have fucked up?

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#206

Post by fineng123 »

lozaning wrote: post #185
fineng123 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they don't understand. A common refrain about the story in the U.S. of LaVar Ball, the impetuously famous basketball dad, is that it was a huge mistake to send his kids to play in Lithuania. It's a classic example of "worldly" Americans going to the Louvre and being "cultured" but not having the depth of understanding that Eastern Europe is a wonderful, beautiful place. It's just not as well-kept and poorer s…

I think there's plenty of room to critique LaVars choices while staying purely within the confines of basketball. The difference between skill level, exposure, and compensation is quite stark between the US and anywhere else. He could send his kids to go live at the Louvre and it's still be a dumb basketball move.

You could definitely say they can learn more in the States as the quality of basketball is higher, but they won't be paid until they're in the league.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#207

Post by catawbasam »

adreamingsoul wrote: post #178
prepend wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s an interesting perspective. What climate change factors worry you? The Midwest is one of the few regions in the US that stand to benefit from climate change. Easy/West will be worst hit.

My biggest concern with the Midwest is the erosion of healthy living top soil. https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climat...

Just read the text in that link, and didn't find the part about top soil. Coul d you be a little more specific?

FYI - I'm pretty sure central Minnesota is gonna be just fine.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#208

Post by fineng123 »

marshray wrote: post #170
_delirium wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How successful is the risk-selling in terms of getting the risk off the federal government, in practice? I can believe there's some level of success, so sure, 100% of the debt-repayment risk in securities managed by the federal government's mortgage entities shouldn't be counted as really being the federal government's. But the way the 2007-08 mortgage mess played out suggests that in an actual mortgage crisis (which…

Maybe the only way to quantify 'moral hazard' at the present time is to count the occurrences of 'Lehman Brothers' in the investment media.

Moral hazard is just a price you pay for stability. It's impossible to avoid. You need a middle ground where if you do something really stupid you're still punished but if you're "still dancing" like everyone else (Chuck Prince, 2007) then you aren't completely hosed. When I used to be a banker, I remember plenty of times where others would make bids on a deal that we couldn't come close to as a small player without a balance sheet. That's why things always get more aggressive in bull markets because you've gotta win deals to make money. It all ebbs and flows.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#209

Post by WrtCdEvrydy »

chatmasta wrote: post #128
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Interesting time” as in jail time for money laundering and wilful tax fraud?

If 80% of millennials collectively decided not to repay their student loans, there would not be enough space in prison for all of them.

Prison stocks up 80%, overcrowding of scum in prisons unaddressed by current Congress.

Re: Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

#210

Post by mpwoz »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #200
georgeecollins wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" The Board of Trustees of Social Security tells us that the program is going to completely run out of money within the next 15 years. " Is very misleading. Social Security is not a bank account, it is an insurance (you can get it at any time, and you get it simply because you paid in) where people are constantly paying in and out. In 17 years* the Social Security system will probably have to cut benefits by 23% unle…

I don't understand why there is a max income threshold for social security tax. Can anyone explain this to me?

Presumably because over a certain threshold, you're paying far more than you'd ever expect to receive back from the program in retirement?

Not saying I agree with it but that's my guess as to the reason.

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