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In reply to the discussion: 1 in 2 new graduates are jobless or underemployed [View all]proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)168. Some notable excerpts (the analysis has absolutely nothing to do with choice of college major):
http://www.zcommunications.org/welcome-to-the-2012-hunger-games-by-rebecca-solnit
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
EXCERPT:
According to the website for Occupy Student Debt ( http://occupystudentdebt.com/ ), 36,000,000 Americans have student debts. These have increased more than fivefold since 1999, creating a debt load thats approaching a trillion dollars, with students borrowing $96 billion more every year to pay for their educations. Two-thirds of college students find themselves in this trap nowadays. As commentator Malcolm Harris put it in N + 1magazine ( http://nplusonemag.com/bad-education ):
About a third are already in default. You can only hope that this bubble will burst in a wildcat strike against student debt, and if were lucky, a move to force tuition lower and have a debt jubilee.
The rest of us, the 99%, need to remember that, when it comes to public education, the crisis has everything to do with slashed tax rates -- to the wealthy and corporations in particular -- over the last 30 years. We went into bondage so that they might be free. Getting an education to make your way out of poverty and maybe expand your mind is becoming another way of being trapped forever in poverty.
<...>
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
EXCERPT:
According to the website for Occupy Student Debt ( http://occupystudentdebt.com/ ), 36,000,000 Americans have student debts. These have increased more than fivefold since 1999, creating a debt load thats approaching a trillion dollars, with students borrowing $96 billion more every year to pay for their educations. Two-thirds of college students find themselves in this trap nowadays. As commentator Malcolm Harris put it in N + 1magazine ( http://nplusonemag.com/bad-education ):
Since 1978, the price of tuition at U.S. colleges has increased over 900%, 650 points above inflation. To put that number in perspective, housing prices, the bubble that nearly burst the U.S. economy, then the global one, increased only fifty points above the Consumer Price Index during those years. But wages for college-educated workers outside of the inflated finance industry have stagnated or diminished. Unemployment has hit recent graduates especially hard, nearly doubling in the post-2007 recession. The result is that the most indebted generation in history is without the dependable jobs it needs to escape debt.
About a third are already in default. You can only hope that this bubble will burst in a wildcat strike against student debt, and if were lucky, a move to force tuition lower and have a debt jubilee.
The rest of us, the 99%, need to remember that, when it comes to public education, the crisis has everything to do with slashed tax rates -- to the wealthy and corporations in particular -- over the last 30 years. We went into bondage so that they might be free. Getting an education to make your way out of poverty and maybe expand your mind is becoming another way of being trapped forever in poverty.
<...>
http://nplusonemag.com/bad-education
25 April 2011
EXCERPT:
What kind of incentives motivate lenders to continue awarding six-figure sums to teenagers facing both the worst youth unemployment rate in decades and an increasingly competitive global workforce?
During the expansion of the housing bubble, lenders felt protected because they could repackage risky loans as mortgage-backed securities, which sold briskly to a pious market that believed housing prices could only increase. By combining slices of regionally diverse loans and theoretically spreading the risk of default, lenders were able to convince independent rating agencies that the resulting financial products were safe bets. They werent. But since this wouldnt be America if you couldnt monetize your childrens futures, the education sector still has its equivalent: the Student Loan Asset-Backed Security (or, as theyre known in the industry, SLABS).
SLABS were invented by then-semi-public Sallie Mae in the early 90s, and their trading grew as part of the larger asset-backed security wave that peaked in 2007. In 1990, there were $75.6 million of these securities in circulation; at their apex, the total stood at $2.67 trillion. The number of SLABS traded on the market grew from $200,000 in 1991 to near $250 billion by the fourth quarter of 2010. But while trading in securities backed by credit cards, auto loans, and home equity is down 50 percent or more across the board, SLABS have not suffered the same sort of drop. SLABS are still considered safe investmentsthe kind financial advisors market to pension funds and the elderly.
With the secondary market in such good shape, primary lenders have been eager to help students with out-of-control costs. In addition to the knowledge that they can move these loans off their balance sheets quickly, they have had another reason not to worry: federal guarantees. Under the just-ended Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), the US Treasury backed private loans to college students. This meant that even if the secondary market collapsed and there were an anomalous wave of defaults, the federal government had already built a lender bailout into the law. And if that werent enough, in May 2008 President Bush signed the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act, which authorized the Department of Education to purchase FFELP loans outright if secondary demand dipped. In 2010, as a cost-offset attached to health reform legislation, President Obama ended the FFELP, but not before it had grown to a $60 billion-a-year operation.
Even with the Treasury no longer acting as co-signer on private loans, the flow of SLABS wont end any time soon. What analysts at Barclays Capital wrote of the securities in 2006 still rings true: For this sector, we expect sustainable growth in new issuance volume as the growth in education costs continues to outpace increases in family incomes, grants, and federal loans. The loans and costs are caught in the kind of dangerous loop that occurs when lending becomes both profitable and seemingly risk-free: high and increasing college costs mean students need to take out more loans, more loans mean more securities lenders can package and sell, more selling means lenders can offer more loans with the capital they raise, which means colleges can continue to raise costs. The result is over $800 billion in outstanding student debt, over 30 percent of it securitized, and the federal government directly or indirectly on the hook for almost all of it.
<...>
25 April 2011
EXCERPT:
What kind of incentives motivate lenders to continue awarding six-figure sums to teenagers facing both the worst youth unemployment rate in decades and an increasingly competitive global workforce?
During the expansion of the housing bubble, lenders felt protected because they could repackage risky loans as mortgage-backed securities, which sold briskly to a pious market that believed housing prices could only increase. By combining slices of regionally diverse loans and theoretically spreading the risk of default, lenders were able to convince independent rating agencies that the resulting financial products were safe bets. They werent. But since this wouldnt be America if you couldnt monetize your childrens futures, the education sector still has its equivalent: the Student Loan Asset-Backed Security (or, as theyre known in the industry, SLABS).
SLABS were invented by then-semi-public Sallie Mae in the early 90s, and their trading grew as part of the larger asset-backed security wave that peaked in 2007. In 1990, there were $75.6 million of these securities in circulation; at their apex, the total stood at $2.67 trillion. The number of SLABS traded on the market grew from $200,000 in 1991 to near $250 billion by the fourth quarter of 2010. But while trading in securities backed by credit cards, auto loans, and home equity is down 50 percent or more across the board, SLABS have not suffered the same sort of drop. SLABS are still considered safe investmentsthe kind financial advisors market to pension funds and the elderly.
With the secondary market in such good shape, primary lenders have been eager to help students with out-of-control costs. In addition to the knowledge that they can move these loans off their balance sheets quickly, they have had another reason not to worry: federal guarantees. Under the just-ended Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), the US Treasury backed private loans to college students. This meant that even if the secondary market collapsed and there were an anomalous wave of defaults, the federal government had already built a lender bailout into the law. And if that werent enough, in May 2008 President Bush signed the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act, which authorized the Department of Education to purchase FFELP loans outright if secondary demand dipped. In 2010, as a cost-offset attached to health reform legislation, President Obama ended the FFELP, but not before it had grown to a $60 billion-a-year operation.
Even with the Treasury no longer acting as co-signer on private loans, the flow of SLABS wont end any time soon. What analysts at Barclays Capital wrote of the securities in 2006 still rings true: For this sector, we expect sustainable growth in new issuance volume as the growth in education costs continues to outpace increases in family incomes, grants, and federal loans. The loans and costs are caught in the kind of dangerous loop that occurs when lending becomes both profitable and seemingly risk-free: high and increasing college costs mean students need to take out more loans, more loans mean more securities lenders can package and sell, more selling means lenders can offer more loans with the capital they raise, which means colleges can continue to raise costs. The result is over $800 billion in outstanding student debt, over 30 percent of it securitized, and the federal government directly or indirectly on the hook for almost all of it.
<...>
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Because it's not up to you what a student's "allowed" to major in, full stop. (nt)
Posteritatis
Apr 2012
#4
But its impossible in this shifting economy to say which majors may hold the key to $$$
riderinthestorm
Apr 2012
#14
In virtually every country, an archaeology survey is legally required before ANY construction
riderinthestorm
Apr 2012
#31
No, but perhaps it is up to us to determine how federal loans are handed out
4th law of robotics
Apr 2012
#11
That's a lie liberal arts students tell themselves to feel better about their degrees
4th law of robotics
Apr 2012
#36
"Your proposal is based on the hypothesis that we can see into the future"
4th law of robotics
Apr 2012
#44
Experts predict that 60% of the best jobs in the next 10 years haven't even been invented yet
riderinthestorm
Apr 2012
#49
Not one single person who currently makes a living as an app developer for an i-phone
4th law of robotics
Apr 2012
#84
There used to be a "core curriculum" for engineering -- stuff that prepared you for change
FarCenter
Apr 2012
#92
I think many universities are starting to incorporate some of the classes you mentioned
fujiyama
Apr 2012
#140
Is liberal arts really easier, or is it just presented in a more interesting way,
JDPriestly
May 2012
#161
I agree that many science teachers in K-12 aren't doing as good a job as they can
fujiyama
Apr 2012
#142
So true. And I think that teachers are doing a better job now than they did when I was
JDPriestly
May 2012
#164
There's no perfect major -- there have been plenty of engineers unemployed . Even now
pnwmom
Apr 2012
#28
Traditionally, most humanities majors haven't expected to find a job directly related to their
pnwmom
Apr 2012
#155
Although some majors may face better odds, there are usually several factors at work
Nikia
Apr 2012
#22
Wearing fishing tackle on his face to his interviews probably does not help either n/t
prdel
May 2012
#174
"While there's strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder."
ingac70
Apr 2012
#13
How cool is that! I studied Radiology (CT Tech here) and now studying Philosophy/Humanities...
Lost-in-FL
Apr 2012
#97
"Would you have signed up for Philosophy without already possesing a marketable skill?"
Lost-in-FL
Apr 2012
#122
Then our whole society should stop sending students the message that college is the answer.
pnwmom
Apr 2012
#39
And the idea that if you don't succeed is because you didn't try hard enough... or just lazy.
Lost-in-FL
Apr 2012
#65
I don't know. I'm just saying it's not the students fault -- it's the fault of the adults in charge.
pnwmom
Apr 2012
#45
You can't argue with logic when you have plenty of hate and contempt for...
Lost-in-FL
Apr 2012
#121
So you want to 'regulate' education? No wonder why many US workers are under-qualified.
Lost-in-FL
Apr 2012
#99
Crazy I know, the concept that government can have any role in "regulating" education
4th law of robotics
Apr 2012
#101
Many good students are denied entrance into useful degree programs -- so they major in whatever
pnwmom
Apr 2012
#19
According to the article the shortage of jobs isn't in science and engineering
4th law of robotics
Apr 2012
#35
Additionally the shortages in academia are a result of recent draconian cuts to research budgets
4th law of robotics
Apr 2012
#87
I see a lot of pretty ridiculous high-cost construction on campuses around here..
Posteritatis
Apr 2012
#144
I ... really, really don't think that accounts for the "1 in 2" figure, or anything close. (nt)
Posteritatis
Apr 2012
#146
Some notable excerpts (the analysis has absolutely nothing to do with choice of college major):
proverbialwisdom
May 2012
#168