Inflation in the most important things: Inflation hitting housing, tuition, and medical services. Is the Fed reinventing another debt based bubble?
Household income is a vital measure of the overall well-being for most Americans. This is why it is important to try to understand why overall household incomes are back to levels last seen in 1995. This is a critical barometer that measures the health of the US middle class. Yet we continually see the argument [...]
Deleveraging from one bubble to another – $6.2 trillion in mortgage debt was added between 2000 and 2008. Since the peak in 2008 $1.3 trillion in US household debt is gone but another bubble is brewing hidden under the rubble of the busted housing market.
There is some interesting data on the deleveraging that is occurring with the American household. Since the peak in Q3 of 2008, US households have lowered their outstanding debt by $1.3 trillion. It is important to understand how this deleveraging is occurring. First of all, Americans are largely paying down existing debts much faster and [...]
Educating students to debt – Student loan debt now second largest sector of household debt approaching $1 trillion. 14 percent of consumers have one account in collections.
College debt is fueling the out of control higher education bubble. The Federal Reserve tracks most household debt sectors very carefully including mortgage debt, auto debt, and credit card debt. You would think that they would follow student loan debt carefully. That was not the case until recently. More disturbing however is that student debt [...]
The crisis of solvency – peak debt, peak food stamp usage, and massive financial deception by media. The faux economy of solving a solvency issue with more debt. Job postings up but hiring flat.
The economy is largely running on a solid amount of debt, Orwellian news, and selective perception. Take for example the absolute lack of coverage on our peak debt situation. The media simply assumes that going over the $15 trillion mark on national debt was somehow a story not worth reporting. The total amount we have [...]
The day of reckoning for global total debt – total credit market debt up from $28 trillion in 2001 to $53 trillion in 2012. US consumer debt went up in last few months but largely because of giant amounts of student loan debt taken on.
You have to really question what passes for financial analysis these days. One financial show was discussing the recent increase in consumer debt as something positive. In the same breath this person also said that households increased savings. Now think about this statement. If you financed a $2,000 vacation on your credit card but increased [...]
When the clock strikes 12 – the midnight economy of food assistance. Millions of people shop on the first of the month because electronic food assistance cards are credited. The lost wages of a decade and a Fed determined to bailout the world.
We have a serious economic crisis on our hands and the media simply fails to acknowledge it. You might be waking up to the first of the month thinking the wheels of the economy are fine. Yet silently, millions of Americans drive into mega supercenters like Wal-Mart only to wait for their monthly allotments of [...]
The student loan racket – For-profit enrollment growth surged by 225 percent in last decade. For-profits live off the 85 percent of revenues they receive from the government and filter out to their Wall Street owners.
The loud commotion you hear rattling the global economy is the massive debt bubble imploding. A few notable economists have stated that too much debt is reached simply when the public acknowledges that there is too much debt. To this point the public is now waking up to the reality that too much debt is [...]
Meet the New Recession, same as the Old Recession – Financial sector devouring a disproportionate amount of revenues. Share of wealth to financial sector at record levels.
The middle class is being squeezed like a ripe tomato out of existence in the United States and the media is largely fixated on trivial nonsense, political theatre, and flashy car advertisements to keep people numb from the grim reality. The financial sector has become a large drag on the overall economy instead of serving [...]
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 [...]
Crossing the student debt point of no return – for-profit colleges have default rates now rivaling subprime mortgage debt. $1 trillion in student loan debt on the horizon while college graduate wages fall for the decade.
The student loan market is back in the news as it makes its unrelenting march to the $1 trillion mark. This crippling figure comes in the face of a decade of lost wages for middle class Americans. Just like the housing bubble people were supplementing a disappearing middle class with more debt. The allure of [...]
