Too bad we have been unable, thus far, to make the same connection that folks are making to Fannie Mae (and Sub-prime) lending and the housing market and student loans and the outrageous cost of tuition with health insurance and the outrageous cost of medical care.
It is utterly depressing that there are so many people like her facing decades of payments, limited capacity to buy a home and a debt burden that can repel potential life partners. For starters, it's a shared failure of parenting and loan underwriting.
But perhaps the biggest share lies with colleges and universities because they have the most knowledge of the financial aid process. And I would argue that they had an obligation to counsel students like Ms. Munna, who got in too far over their heads.
Failed parenting? These are the parents from less well off backgrounds that fought through the system to get their kids into one of the "top" colleges. These are the parents from working class backgrounds that stayed up countless nights after work to help the kids with their homework. These were the parents that were determined to give their kids opportunity.
"Failed parenting"? These parents and their kids were led to the slaughter by the outrageous snobbery of the establishment institutions, and these institutions were more than capable of calculating the economic benefit of their sheepskin. (The sad fact that this young woman was silly enough to seek a degree in, get this, woman's studies (LOLOLOLOLHAHAHAHA! is that a SCREAM??!! Who does she think she is - ANITA HILL??!! Sorry, that got away from me...) does not excuse the system - that system just is what it is... a horrible, debt creation and enslavement program.)
I am a career finance guy, it was a no-brainer for me to see this. Asking a mechanic to see this is like asking me what's wrong with your car.
And the line about "repelling life partners"? I can tell you from experience that marrying into a massive student debt is a serious burden on a young couple/family trying to get a start in life... after all, people with student debt don't exactly have family money to make a mortgage down payment with, or to help in an emergency or job loss. These are the kids that are on their own from a young age. To harm them in this fashion is simply despicable, but the "elite" schools ran out of wealthy suckers... somebody has to keep the elite in blazers and mocha frapachinos...
------------------------------------------------
The U.S. is between a rock and a hard place vis a vi B.P. and the GOM Oil and Nat Gas production. If you think fisherman are suffering in the GOM, "you ain't seen nothing yet". The decrease in production in the GOM from drilling bans and FEAR that if you make a mistake you might wind up indicted by the Federal Government is going to have a significant effect on the local economy. There is NO OTHER INDUSTRY to speak of in the GOM. Every business, large and small, can thank the offshore Oil and Gas industry for all of the money coming into the region (with the exception of Government transfer payments, the taxes for which come from the payrolls of the Energy industry and their support industries).
Further, if I am correct in my assessment that with the GOM producing 15% to 18% of U.S. Nat Gas, and a larger portion of non-Alaska Oil, the contraction in the rest of the U.S. economy will put a lid on employment expansion within 12 months.
We have painted ourselves into a corner. Sometimes luck is with you, and sometimes it is not. An Oil supply problem elsewhere in the world, or an L.A. earthquake or a major hurricane hitting Miami (or any other big city on the east coast) and the U.S. economy will really find out what its made of given a significant contraction of domestic Oil and Nat Gas production.
But at least the administration is going to hang a few of the engineers on the Horizon platform, and maybe an executive or 2. But Government Sachs? The folks that nearly destroyed the financial system? Off scott free, probably to buy the assets of what is left of B.P.
----------------------------------------