Consumer Credit Update And Student Financial Rape
The Market Ticker ® - Commentary on The Capital Markets
Posted 2011-03-07 16:42
by Karl Denninger
in Consumer
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Consumer Credit Update And Student Financial Rape
 

There's liars, there's damn liars, and then there's those who intentionally mislead and screw our youth.

The Federal Government and the mania-stream media are in the second category.

The Consumer Credit Report came out today, and it showed:

Consumer credit increased at an annual rate of 2-1/2 percent in January 2011. Nonrevolving credit increased at an annual rate of 7 percent, while revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 6-1/2 percent.

Oh, non-revolving credit did eh?

If you pay attention to The Ticker you know that I have run this series since the outset of the recession.  Here's the top-level graph that I present every month:

Here's the problem with this chart, which shows that non-revolving credit is indeed improving - it's distorted heavily by one thing - student loans, all of which were transferred to the Federal Government.

Now let's get rid of that:

Oops.  That "ex-FedGov" is non-revolving credit less student loans, basically.

So let me see if I get this right - we're trying to crank consumer credit by turning into debt slaves the only group of suckers left - our young adults. The rest of America has wised up and contrary to media reports is not increasing their credit load, revolving or otherwise.

That's right - our young adults who are too naive to understand are being intentionally exploited.  Those young adults who our "High Schools" intentionally fail to teach the principles of the exponential function in the real world and intentionally fail to put forward the truth about how our economy and credit-based system works in real life. This leaves them "ripe" for the picking with stars in their eyes as they listen with rapt attention to the riches promised if they just go to college - whatever it takes.

Asked to take on $100,000 even $200,000 in debt for a college education that will leave them with a $1,000 a month or more after tax obligation, while foreign workers will and do come into the United States without that burden on H1Bs, thereby under-pricing them in the job market by $18,000 a year or more, these young adults are being exploited, screwed, blued and tattooed in a puerile and outrageous attempt to keep the debt-ponzi going by everyone involved from High Schools to Colleges to the Federal Government itself.

This is financial rape, and if you're a parent with kids in college or about to matriculate and you are not warning your children about this outrageous incitement to financial ruin and doing everything in your power to stop it (or worse, you're "helping" them to get screwed like this) I hope your now-adult children refuse the answer the door when Social Security and Medicare blow up and you're rendered homeless, penniless and helpless.

This is one of the most-outrageous abuses I've ever seen perpetrated on anyone.  It radically exceeds anything done to the subprime and ALT-A borrowers in that the young adults abused by this practice are by definition simply due to age and experience ill-equipped to understand what they're getting into.  They are relying on the adults advising them, from High School and College counselors to "Financial Aid" officers and their parents.

To put a number on this abuse the cumulative damage inflicted on our youth between the first of 2009 and January of 2011, just two short years, is almost two hundred and twenty-four billion dollars.

One quarter of a TRILLION dollars in debt has been larded up on our young adults in the last two years.

If you're a party to this you deserve to burn in Hell.

And if you're in the mainstream media and reporting "more consumer credit" being taken down in an attempt to "support" this market rally and the general view of the economy "improving" you're a damned liar.

One final thing that has been brought up and needs to be mentioned.  If you're a young person and marry someone with this sort of debt you're certifiably insane.  Don't even think about it.  If you're thinking you might want to get married and are considering taking on this sort of debt you just eliminated all worthy people of the opposite gender from your potential pool of partners.

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User Info Consumer Credit Update And Student Financial Rape in forum [Market-Ticker]
Starvingartist
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Huzzah! Yes indeed and I get some nasty looks when I explain how student loans are modern slavery.

Ask me how I know :)

Great ticker.

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"The only solution that is mathematically sound is politically impossible.
All the should's in the world ain't gonna change that."
Ooo
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Disgusting and those party to this SHOULD burn in Hell!

The mainstream media reporting "more consumer credit" are a bunch of ****ed up liars, yes.
Mo
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The big fraud is in academia right now. Their salaries and budgets are still levitated by the federal government via the future enslavement of a generation.

This is the kind of thing the republicans in congress should be holding hearings about.

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Clawback
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Wow. That second chart explains a lot. I don't know how I missed it before, but I never realized that consumer credit included student loans. It never made sense to me that consumer credit was increasing -- at least i didn't see anecdotal evidence of it anywhere around where I live.
Risingcream
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What happens if you marry one of these debt slaves.

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Civilization...ancient and wicked. --Subotai

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Bertdilbert
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The over supply of collage grads will hit the market in a couple of years and drive down wages for the grads... SMART. Diploma will get you fry cook wages with a debt payment. Never fear, if we round them up into public service, Obama will waive the student loan debt. That leaves taxpayers with the bill in theory, but since we are going to default in the end, it is hard to make the argument as to how much the taxpayers will really have to pay on anything at this point.

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Matt_bear
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I saw the writing on the wall when i took my first job in 2005 at a Financial Services company that specialized in running the books and loans for "for profit" schools/colleges.


kids and their overprotective parents today are too brainwashsed to say "no" to college.

the illusion of that corporate job and the potential for that 6 figure salary keeps them blind to real/hard/true economics and mathmatics.

If I was graduating high school this year i'd either be sitting out a year and trying to find a trade type job if my grades weren't good, or i'd be going to the cheapest college possible. Out of state is out of the question.

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In terms of real-world fundamentals, I expect that most of the people around me, whom I work with day to day, and whom I pass on the street ... will be dead within five years.
Azengrcat
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Fellow 25 year old debt slave reporting in.

I took a gamble borrowing money for my mechanical engineering degree and now I am losing that bet after I was part of a lay off in 2010. Fortunately I can tutor math to pay my loans and some other bills while my wife is doing the heavy lifting with her teachers salary. Requests for interviews have picked up recently so the outlook is a bit more positive but I won't pretend things are better until I get my first paycheck.

I am not the worse off out of my friends. A couple I know both have a combined $175K in student debt. The guy has a civil engineering job and has $600 a month to pay back. His girlfriend on the other hand got her Physical Education/Elementary Education degree and has racked up over $100K in debt which will translate to an $1100/month payment. She moved back home with her parents in Orange County after she could not get a job in AZ. She refuses to look for anything besides a teaching job. The worse part of the delusion is she demands Tiffany diamonds for her future engagement!

Hiring rates for new graduates is still in the trash and school costs keep going up. If you go to job boards (ex: http://www.indeed.com/forum/job/mechanic....) You will see people struggling with the fact that they can't get jobs out of school and wondering if the whole thing is a big scam.

There will be a day of rage when my generation realizes we SHALL (not could or maybe) be the ones paying the price for the rest of our lives for all of the bailouts, borrowing, and bankrupt social programs of the USA.
Rickyd
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Karl...you may have answered this before, but, what would you suggest someone that is about to graduate from high school do once he/she graduates?

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Widgeon
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Posted This a Few Weeks Ago; Still a Great Story.


A close friend (Father) just took his kid (Daughter) to interview for the Vet program at a large Midwestern Land Grant School. I'd guess toward the more "reasonable" end cost wise as compared to the bigger high flying LG Universities.

To the kid's credit, they were already accepted ... this was a campus/college visit for the weekend.

Now, the Father related the story and his word is good. From the story he told, the professors/Vets were honestly doing everything in their power to discourage this kid from coming ... the Father said that they said that it was virtually impossible to justify the cost based upon reasonable expected salary, etc. They actually said, to a father with his kid sitting there, that the ONLY person they could point to that had successfully overcome the cost/benefit issue was a student that worked as a stripper at nights while a student at the Vet School. WTF !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Frankly, I'm a bit amazed that the on-the-ground profs were being so honest.

Oh, the cost you ask? Tuition Alone ... $135,000. I assume that is the guaranteed cost for the entire program.

Throw in living expenses, etc. and you're easily over $200k.

Of course, the Family right now has stars in their eyes and so far are committed to going ahead.
Lyndscott
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THANK YOU, KARL ! THANK YOU FOR THIS POSTING ! PLEASE RUN WITH IT & KEEP ON POUNDING THIS TOPIC. My oldest daughter is one of the victims of the student loan scam. Without consulting me, at age 22 (not really old enough to understand the long-term consequences ) she took out private student loans because she just couldn't afford to live without it !

I told her that it's not her fault, that she was TARGETED by the government & wall st. as a pristine young person with no debt & the banks could make never ending interest on her back. OUR YOUNG PEOPLE WERE TARGETED UNDER G.W.BUSH & HIS BUDDIES ON WALL ST TO GET THEM ALL INTO DEBT. & here we sit now.

Now the youth cannot even afford to buy themselves a modest first home. When I was young (early 1970's) NO BANK IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD HAVE LOANED A 23 YEAR OLD UNLIMITED CREDIT !

Karl, these young people ...... they don't have a chance, no jobs, debt that should never have been lent out in the first place. FRAUDULENT INDUCEMENT, get them all in debt & throw away the keys.
Jstanley01
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This time 'round how about for real???



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Starvingartist
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Quote:
debt that should never have been lent out in the first place


Yes.

And that free money is what has jacked the price of college up so high that it's nigh unto impossible to get a four year degree in under 6 years without loans.

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"The only solution that is mathematically sound is politically impossible.
All the should's in the world ain't gonna change that."
Rickyd
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I threw the question out to Karl...anyone can chime in...what would you suggest your son/daughter get into upon graduation from High School?

I was thinking of a trade...Carpentry...Electrician...Pipe Fitter. Although, I am not too sure on the cost of these professions.

The cost of my degree in Engineering that I earned a few decades ago is a fraction of what I see today....I am just amazed.

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"We have a crisis of values that is extremely deep"
Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University
Starvingartist
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Dunno Rickyd - I have the same dilemma. I suggest the military.

My daughter won't be too interested in pipe fitting I don't think.


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"The only solution that is mathematically sound is politically impossible.
All the should's in the world ain't gonna change that."
End_the_bubbles
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Quote:
If you're a party to this you deserve to burn in Hell.


**** that.

They deserve to burn NOW! smiley


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In the long run even the most despotic governments with all their brutality and cruelty are no match for ideas. Eventually the ideology that has won the support of the majority will prevail and cut the ground from under the tyrant's feet and rise in rebellion to overthrow their masters.
Weps
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as someone involved with higher education and quite aware of the folly underway, i fully expect "student loan forgiveness" to be a key political issue. unfortunately, as a country, we've almost completely eliminated alternatives for high school graduates and have pretty much destroyed the economic environment necessary to support other options.

unless debt forgiveness was the planned tool all along, i'm not quite sure i believe there was some massively orchestrated plan to target students with debt. instead, i think it has more to do with very idealistic thinking and an outright refusal by society to admit that some people simply should not be in college - especially after spending most of the past 30 years holding it out as the only way to really "get ahead".

so now we have students learning nothing that can really help them get a job because there are so few jobs. and they've also learned almost nothing that can help them when they don't have a job. it's this group, i fear , that is eventually going to consider jesse jackson jr, the einstein of their era.





Goforbroke
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And while at college, those young adults will be bombarded by revolving credit card applications.

No wonder the focus on elementary/middle/high school education and the "importance of a degree" ... got to make sure there's enough wood coming in to keep the stove burning.

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Trades50
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The politicians keep talking about US needing more education to compete yet many of our highly educated are unemployed.

Companies prefer to bring in H1Bs. Many of these young people compete against the H1Bs.

Still waiting for the youth to take to the streets regarding this. Guess it's not bad enough yet.

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When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty. - Thomas Jefferson
Widgeon
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Quote:
i'm not quite sure i believe there was some massively orchestrated plan to target students with debt



You're only looking at it from the educators side ... JMHO but you can bet your sweet hinney that the bankers & U. Aministrators saw and facilitated the "orchestration" of which you speak. It's so phracking obvious a hamster can see it.

Jstanley01
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Do people honestly believe that this spread has gone to improving education? Naw, it has gone down the academic rat hole and under the pigmen's rake.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_tui....
Inline

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You can't cheat an honest man. ~P.T. Barnum

Drb
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One day I will write something comprehensive on higher education since I am prof (exact sciences) in a large public university. Honestly, I do not understand where does the tuition/fee money disappears. My salary is paid by State so I in fact working for free to University (not free to taxpayers obviously). I bring in about my salaries' worth of research grant overhead (part of grants that University skims off), so one can count that I even PAY for working there. When I teach a 250 people class, university collects probably 300K of tuition/fees for that class. My guess is that a lot of the money goes into athletics (which is stupid as it does nothing to education), building fancy dorms, recreation centers, and in administrative perks.
And about highly educated being without jobs - it depends. Of course many social sciences degrees are useful only as hobbies. In chemistry and chemical engineering where I am now most people with BS degrees got positions last year. This year, I am not so sure any more.
Jstanley01
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Drb: Thanks for posting, professor. If you're going to really dig into the whole gawd-awful mess, I hope you have tenure. And maybe a bomb-sniffing dog. Just sayin'...

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You can't cheat an honest man. ~P.T. Barnum

Etz
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Gen wrote..
turning into debt slaves the only group of suckers left - our young adults.
Literally. On a positive note, it's possible to have your student debt discharged, but only under certain specific circumstances like such as "You die or become totally and permanently disabled."

http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/s....

smiley

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