Student Loan Forgiveness: Shrinking Along With State Budgets

Here come the caveats.  In a general sense, as long as we're in the mood to reward certain groups, we have a question.  Who deserves a bailout? 

I'll take a stab at an answer: a select group of student-loan debtors and an equally select group with staggering health-care debt.  Social workers, non-profit employees, teachers, nurses and home-health care employees (and others?) would all qualify.  Wipe it away and watch them spend.  Individual health care debt is another daunting problem for millions of families.  The Feds can make it disappear with a few checks.  Problem solved and millions are unleashed anew to consume mightily.

Sure, it's simplistic.  And we understand the inherent injustice in bailing out anyone at the exclusion of others.  But we would rather help these folks than the over-leveraged, bonus-chasing bastards of Wall Street.  And so it was with interest that I read yesterday that while the Money Store remains open to inglorious banksters and failed automotive asshats, it is shutting down quickly for teachers and social workers.  Nice.  Our various governments are an embarrassment.

Here's the piece from Jonathon Glater of the New York Times.

Comments

[DailyBail]

IRS tax revenue falls along with taxpayers' income

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2009-05-26-irs-tax-revenue-down_N.htm

[DailyBail]

Bailout Nation Publishes Today

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/05/finally-bailout-nation-publishes-today/

[James H]

Brilliant contrast, Daily Bail. Puts the whole thing in perspective. Lloyd Blankfein keeps his mansion, his millions and his cappucino machine (hat tip JH Kunstler). Joe and Jane Teacher in Kentucky? They get screwed out of their house, their money and possibly their jobs. (I don't know if they have a cappucino machine.)

This is what makes me the angriest -- not just the sheer injustice of the banker bailouts, but the huge disparity in how different people are affected by them. Remember, if it weren't for people like us, the asshats on Wall Street would be looking for new jobs and their bondholders would have to find new victims. I can't complain. I have plenty. But I don't have a mansion or a cappucino machine. Fucking welfare queens.

[JeffM]

Reagan set the pace for this one back in the 80's.

[DailyBail]

Mortgage Delinquencies, Foreclosures, 30-Year Rates Increase

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aE_j_CA8fCao&refer=worldwide

[DailyBail]

1 in 8 US homeowners late paying or in foreclosure

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN2832609020090528

[DailyBail]

As California seeks more funds from its cash-strapped cities and counties to close a $21 billion budget deficit, some state legislators are pushing a plan that could compound municipalities' pain by making it tougher for them to file for bankruptcy.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124346998818460615.html

[DailyBail]

If AIG was too big to fail, how about the world's eighth-largest economy?

In a move with only one modern-day precedent, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers are pressing the Obama administration and members of Congress for federal loan guarantees to help the state out of a desperate, multibillion-dollar jam.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090527/D98EPK2O1.html

[DailyBail]

This will be a jumbo prime problem soon.

Job Losses Push Safer Mortgages to Foreclosure


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/business/economy/25foreclose.html?_r=4&ref=global-home

[nomysterymeat]

The picture shown is correct. My husband and I will still be paying off our loans when we try to send our son to college! We both feel that we were told we would have to go to school or we would never make it in the world. We both did and now owe 80,000 + between us- with jobs that don't even pay that much in two years worth of us working. Where is our bail out?

[DailyBail]

@non-mystery meat

You are not alone. Someone very close to me has 50k in student loan debt from getting a Masters in Social Work. And she makes 35k per year currently with 10 years of experience. She deserves a bailout of this debt certainly more than any banker.