Arne Duncan: $1.4 Trillion In Student Debt Isn't That Big Of A Deal

[madfloridian]

$1.4 Trillion In Student Debt Isn't That Big Of A Deal

The Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and other federal financial regulators are all worried that the rise in student debt risks slowing economic growth. Bankers worry it'll lead to a decline in other types of lending. Some policymakers are concerned it will hurt home sales, cause a decline in new small businesses and result in lower retirement savings.

Voters are concerned, too, which has led 2016 presidential aspirants to talk about student debt on the stump. Even Donald Trump claims he's worried.

But Arne Duncan, President Barack Obama's education secretary, thinks that's all overblown.

.....Outstanding student debt, which totals nearly $1.4 trillion, has climbed 86 percent since Duncan took office in January 2009, Federal Reserve data show. The figure stood at $730.7 billion three weeks before he took office, and that amount is expected to double by early next year, despite the Obama administration's successful efforts to increase the amount of grants available to students from low-income households.

The words of Barmak Nassirian, director of federal relations and policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities:

"It strains credulity to assume that the last 18 months of this administration will accomplish that which the six and a half years prior failed to address or take notice of," Nassirian said. "Most of what they've done has been talk. I seriously doubt that much else will change."

[mackerel]

1. I'm thinking Harvard Grad.

[msongs]

2. Im thinking promotes the agenda of his boss nt

[Enthusiast]

38. Me too.

[snagglepuss]

3. Are you referring to Duncan? It'd be interesting to know whether

he had any student debt.

[merrily]

18. His wiki may give you a clue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_Duncan

[merrily]

17. and/or University of Chicago Professor Dad

[awoke_in_2003]

42. So was the guy that appointed him. nt

[PatrickforO]

4. I'm calling BULL SHIT on Arne Duncan.

$1.4 trillion in student is a BIG F-ING DEAL, because it is ruining the chances of our children and grandchildren to get ahead and have decent lives. They are starting off by being DEBT SLAVES and that is unconscionable.

[mackerel]

5. Yep I called it

Education: Harvard University (1987), University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, University of Chicago, Harvard College

[6chars]

9. Grew up on the south side of Chicago

that can be pretty gritty, yo.

explanation: University of Chicago is in Hyde Park, which is a very well-to-do neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, surrounded by less affluent neighborhoods.

[mackerel]

6. I see he's the brains behind common core. LOL

[AtomicKitten]

7. Tone deaf assclown.

My son makes $12 an hour, 30-hour week, and they want a total $6K payment a month on his student loans.

Goddamn it.

[JDPriestly]

15. It's ridiculous. I am sorry for your son. He is not alone. There are so many good kids

in his predicament.

[AtomicKitten]

20. thanks

he's seeking legal counsel, has no other choice.
it's insane.

[madfloridian]

28. That's outrageous. It truly is...

So sorry to hear it. And Arne doesn't think it's a big effing deal.

[olddots]

8. is it just me or does this guy look like he has an IQ around room temperature ?

[mackerel]

10. Well it says he went to have so yeah, not too bright, legacy school

and banking system of education.

[nationalize the fed]

11. The whole system is

rotten to the core. Who or what gets the interest?

Outstanding student debt, which totals nearly $1.4 trillion, has climbed 86 percent since Duncan took office in January 2009, Federal Reserve data show.

At a time when the Leader of the Democratic Party is pulling out all stops to pass YET ANOTHER "FREE TRADE AGREEMENT". Students can borrow 3 hundred thousand dollars for an "education" but if there's nothing to manufacture what good is it? DEBT.

THIS IS A DISGRACE. Are the Boomers just going to leave it to the next generations to fix it?

Look around- everything is based on debt. Debt slaves. Usury is no longer prohibited (except in Muslim countries)

The US used to be able to do things besides bombing and invading other countries and putting people in debt. In ten years men went to the moon. Everything was possible. Now nothing good seems possible.

The progressive case for Nationalizing the Federal Reserve

The United States today finds itself in the midst of a crisis which exists on a multitude of different levels. From the establishment of a culture of constant warfare, increasing environmental degradation, and the devolution into an outright police state, the perils of the current system are easily visible to those with eyes to see.

Nowhere, however, is the crisis more visible than in the manifestations of the world economic depression.

From mass unemployment (estimated at approximately 25% when all factors are considered) and a growing national debt to a ballooning trade deficit and the loss of purchasing power of the dollar as well as decrepit and crumbling national infrastructure, the United States today faces a crisis of epic proportions.

Most of the blame for this economic calamity, of course, can be directly traced back to the treachery of private bankers, Wall Street, and the practice of usury combined the acts of the agents of these financiers in the halls of government at some point or other. Ever since the Federal Reserve was solidified as the perceived national bank of the United States, the most powerful nation on the face of the earth and, thus, its people, were placed under the rule and at the mercy of private bankers...
http://www.progressivegazette.com/2013/12/nationalize-federal-reserve.html

Why shouldn't the national currency be like a public utility? Oh that's right- public utilities are a thing of the past.

[truedelphi]

12. this^^^^^^^^^^^ n/t

[JDPriestly]

14. Thanks. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to coin our money.

Congress should at least control what goes on better if it doesn't take over the job.

[Enthusiast]

36. +1 an entire shit load.

[JDPriestly]

13. For individuals, student debt influences when they marry, how many chidlren they have

and what career choice they make.

If you owe a lot of money, you need to make a lot of money. The student debt crisis pushes graduates away from altruistic careers that bring lots of rewards to our society as a whole, careers like teaching, public interest law, public interest economics, non-profit business, small business, nursing, etc. and pushes them into working for big companies, big firms, for-profit corporations, and worst of all, still more people in the financial sector.

The student debt crisis is having all kinds of bad effects on our society.

[merrily]

16. If graduates had many great-paying jobs to choose from, or were all "limousine liberals"...

to madfloridian for tirelessly educating so many of us about Duncan, charter schools and the rest of the mess.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

32. I second that. nt

[angrychair]

19. Student debt

Will destroy our children's futures. I will never let my children get saddled with the lifetime of debt I will be paying till the day I die. I am faced with the prospect of trying to figure out how I am going to pay $900 a month when I'm 70 years old ( actual amount in my repayment schedule). My only consolation is I doubt I'll live that long or if I'm lucky I'll just die in a president Walker government debtor prison.

[SamKnause]

21. One in a long line of disgusting disappointing appointments

President Obama has made.

[Katashi_itto]

22. What a POS he is.

[davidpdx]

23. Hey Arne

[stillwaiting]

24. K&R for exposure. He sounds like a Republican. Period. nt

[madfloridian]

25. Totally clueless man. More words from him.

Duncan consistently emphasized low college completion rates as a bigger problem than student debt, and suggested that a renewed focus on college completion and holding institutions accountable for low rates will help reduce punishing student debt burdens.

He seems dense about the connections he's making there. Is he not aware that the drop out rate is often tied to the cost and the debt??

[Enthusiast]

35. Arne is duh.

[RadiationTherapy]

26. 1,400 billion dollars. 1,400,000 piles of 1 million dollars each.

Imagine giving 1.4 million american families 1 million dollars each.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

27. How do I rec this more than once?

Education is one place where Obama's administration has actually managed to be WORSE than Bush's.

[fredamae]

29. "Isn't That Big of a Deal"

Ohhhhh, ok..then everyone is forgiven of their student debt, effective immediately?????


Thanks Arn!

[closeupready]

40. Bingo. It's so 'not a big deal', you can't discharge in bankruptcy

your student loans unless you meet some really NARROW set of conditions. Everyone else (which is probably like 95% of student loan debtors) will be saddled with these debts for the res of their lives.

[Javaman]

30. that's the next bubble to burst. nt

[City Lights]

31. Then it shouldn't be a problem to wipe it out.

It's no big deal.

Get right on that, Arne. The students thank you in advance.

[marmar]

33. ............

[Enthusiast]

34. Kicked and recommended to the Max!

[LWolf]

37. Of course it's not a big deal to him.

He has never valued actual students.

[sub.theory]

39. This is what out of touch looks like

Good grief. Hey, Arne, all that debt is in fact a big deal to those that start adult life with cement shoes. Glad to hear you're in the privledged 1% that doesn't have to worry about such peasant matters, though.