Yes, Rickymouse...we are in a depression. For years, we were in a recession and Bush was in utter denial of the fact. Then, after the 2007-8 financial crisis, we plummeted into a depression. In fact, when you look at housing prices in what occurred during the Great Depression and compare it to today, what you'll see is that housing prices a few years ago crashed faster and harder by a large scale when compared to the Great Depression. 33% decline in a matter of a couple years. For anyone wondering how the Great Depression (which is commonly associated with a stock market crash) is related to what we have today, here ya go: www.bloomberg.com... History has simply repeated itself.
I have a b.s. of accounting, honors or better GPA for ever year. Whipped out my degree in a little over 3 years (it was BRUTAL). Also have 15+ years of bookkeeping/managerial experience for a mid-sized corp. $42k in student loan debt, roughly $4k of which is interest. I've seen jobs for accountants at wages like $12-15 an hour or roughly $21k a year. A few at $36k a year starting but those fill extraordinarily fast. It's like I told my dad a couple months ago when my $500ish student loan payments were about to begin--I told him that I'd probably be better off just putting a bullet in my head. Believe it or not, I'm actually quite content with every other aspect of my life and I'm not actually suicidal. I'm just smart enough to know that my life is now utterly screwed. As an accountant who aced stats and financial analysis, I can pretty well approximate the future and it isn't pretty. We WILL be Greece within a couple years unless something changes drastically.
How it is all related: The LIBOR rates involved with the scandal actually did effect a good number of student loans. The response by Obama was to reduce the payments for loans after 2007. However, reducing the payment amount causes a dramatic impact on how much interest you end up paying when all is said and done (if ever "done"). It's a band aid. The manipulations of the housing market and interest rates also impacted everything else under the sun. You can see counties and cities crumbling under toxic derivatives: www.bloomberg.com...
The frauds perpetrated trickled through things from as large as counties and cities (perhaps even states, holistically), all the way down through the colleges and universities (also tend to use bonds for development/improvements/expansion) and to individual homeowners. The problem in regards to college education combined with student loans is that a student is likely to get double or triple hit by the effects through high tuition costs, LIBOR impacted student loans, and perhaps fleecing at the academic level as universities use entities like Higher One in which to deposit their excess loan monies. Take a look at their fee schedule: www.higheroneaccount.com... and compare that to your own banking account. Students at universities around the nation who were receiving a student loan were forced to use this specific bank.
Take away--What has happened is criminal. They say ignorance is bliss. Nearly every day, I wish I hadn't taken accounting and financial analysis because, by doing so, I see precisely how I and god knows how many other students across the nation were absolutely bent over not just by sketchy and fraudulent activities by banks but by our own Uncle Sam, too. I should have been an art major so maybe I could sleep better at night.
edit on 21/2/13 by WhiteAlice because: need more coffee
I have a friend with
a phd in psychology who has a tech support job. He's not dumb either.
