Note To Self: No National Economic Problem Doesn't Mean There's No Problem

Why not to fear a student-loan bubble - The Tell - MarketWatch

I've seen it argued a few times that there's nothing to worry about as far as U.S. debt bubbles go because there's not really one. I don't know if that's true or not, but whether it's either or, student borrowers should still take time to get acquainted with the loaning system. We should know how much money we need to pay for school and if the pay off after is worth the debt we accumulate during. Also we need to know whether we believe we'll have the ability to pay off the debt in the long-run. Paul Dales, the guy quoted in the piece linked above says that now this dept bubble (blip?), "just needs to be monitored," so we probably won't see any huge changes in the system anytime soon if others find this student loan thing to be more of a blip than a bomb.

For example, debt relief is like taking gummi bears to treat Ebola. Without institutional change, debt will reload within a decade.

Umair Haque , tweet (@umairh)

A Few More Important Articles Regarding Student Loans...

Election will affect student loans, Pell Grants - News - Daily Campus - Southern Methodist University

When heading to the polls, which candidate is right for economy? What about education? Because, you know, those two things are highly related. What will President Obama do if he's reelected in the current election? Governor Mitt Romney? Is either plan right for you?

Speaking of...



Which Candidate Has Good Student Loan Plan? Neither - US Business News - CNBC

It turns out no matter which of the two candidates you pick, you've picked the wrong one on education...



Complaints may presage student loan crisis - The Washington Post

When are we going to take the "debt bomb" seriously? Maybe we can preempt the looming catastrophe and prevent four or more years of slog the way we didn't with the mortgages. Or maybe it's all just a bunch of hoopla...



Don't buy myth of student loan 'crisis' | The Columbia Daily Tribune - Columbia, Missouri

See? Hoopla.



Lastly,

Don't take on new loan debt | Recordnet.com


Because Michelle Singletary is doing an excellent job over at the Washington Post writing about student loans. Plus the advice of the above article, though aimed at recent graduates, is a universal one: Look before you leap (or better yet, considering the clear evidence of the currenct educational/economic problem, it's probably better to just not leap while you look).

Nick Gidwani: Obama and Student Loans: Income-Based Repayment


In 2010 we started an overhaul on healthcare with Obamacare. I think it's time to do something similar with our education system. The Huffington Post article by Nick Gidwani, linked above, starts the conversation off and points us in a direction. In it he describes our current detrimental situation and steps that have been taken by the president to rectify the situation.

The steps basically is a tighter form of student loan forgiveness--a cause I believe in for obvious personal reason, but one that I realize is rife with problems; the largest being where would we get the money to do that and what lesson do we learn by doing it. The latter of the two problems is what Gidwani caps his article off with and he's right.

Student loan forgiveness, or leniency as the College Cost Reduction and Access Act referenced in the article would closer resemble, would only relieve the immediate problem and only a narrow slice of it at that. The immediate problem is that college cost is getting high, and that's not including the fact that it has become harder to pay for college due to stagnant pay and rising cost of living. The article suggests that making it somewhat easier to pay loans back and cancel them decades down the line causes them to also look more attractive to potential students. This is bad because isn't out problem that too many college students and graduates are saddled with debt that they are struggling to repay. Not only that I've seen several articles connecting rising college tuition with the increase of loan acquistion. Again Gidwani is right. This is "a conversation n we need to have."