Archive for the ‘Anarchy Journal Constitutional’ Category

Student Loan #Debt & The #Education Bubble

Posted: March 6, 2014 in Excess and Algorithms
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by @anarchyroll
3/5/2014

A lot has been written about student loan debt, but apparently not a lot of research has been done into the subject. The Department of Education releases default rates once a year, but that is just about it. Are you surprised at this? So was the New York State Federal Reserve Bank. Two analysts working their essentially had to do a bulk of the research that is now often cited by the media and protest groups.

They found that the percentage of 25-year-old college graduates with student loan debts essentially doubled while the average loan balance increased 91% from 2003 to 2012.

Economists are looking at education borrowing as the next bubble that could burst and drag down the US economy along with it. Much like the housing bubble, there are a lot of government backed loans being given away with a rubber stamp to large amounts of people who are unable to immediately if ever repay. Government officials are openly comparing student borrowing to the mortgage-backed security crisis of 2008. And remember, this article opened with the fact that there has been little study and even less data available on the subject.

Mortgage backed securities, credit default swaps, and derivatives trading are all complicated things. Let’s keep the education bubble concept simple.

Student loan debt in America = $1.2 trillion (with a T) more than any other form of consumer debt.

Much like the series of articles written about quantitative easing (QE), there will be multiple articles written about student loan debt as well as the debate over raising the minimum wage. These are the three economic issues I feel most passionately about and wish to shine light upon. Let those numbers listed above wash over you for a bit. Do you know anyone dealing with student loan debt? How are they doing? What is their quality of life?

It’s not just the loan or the interest, it is the unemployment, underemployment, or complete non-existence of careers in the fields thousands if not millions of students are graduating with each year. It’s not just the monthly payment on the loan(s). It’s the monthly payment on the loan plus rent, utilities, food, transportation, etc.

The Education Bubble and the student loan debt crisis are one and the same. They are intertwined, they are two terms describing essentially the same thing.

How is higher education a bubble akin to the dot-com, real estate bubbles, and other asset bubbles? We’ll cover that in part 2…

Joakim Noah: #NBA & #Chicago Sports Legend in the Making

Posted: March 4, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll
3/2/2014

I’ll take hard work over born and bred talent any day of the week. More often than not, so will the city of Chicago. The only thing they love more than a good work ethic is a fun place to drink with minimal exposure to minorities, hence why the Chicago Cubs franchise makes so much money without winning in a century.

Joakim Noah is the embodiment of hustle and desire over talent and skill. Yes he has talent, but his craving to apply maximum sweat equity to his profession is what has made him a two time NCAA champion, two time NBA all star, and the unquestioned heart and soul of the Chicago Bulls franchise.

I have been a fan of Joakim Noah since the suit he wore on draft night. From there he won over the hearts and minds of both myself and the entire Chicago fan base by getting noticeably better every year of his pro career and by constantly hustling his ass off every single game regardless of time of season, home or away, regular season or playoff, nail biter or blowout. That is the kind of effort that Chicago demands of its superstar athletes. Or at least the ones who want to be considered local legends.

Derrick Rose is now perceived as being soft, fairly or unfairly, right or wrong. He has suffered legit injuries, it is in his method of recovery that a very large, very thick cloud on his integrity and grit has arisen. The only question regarding Noah is whether or not he’ll get ejected from a game for wearing his emotions on his sleeve so intensely.

With Rose habitually out of action due to injury, Luol Deng being traded, and the Bulls organization following protocol and refusing to make a trade at the deadline, Noah is both the metaphorical and leader of the Chicago Bulls for the remainder of the 2013-14 season. Because of this, they are winning. Noah has taken his game to the next level, matching his fostered talent with born perseverance. He is scoring more points, grabbing more rebounds, and assisting his teammates scoring more.

The only people who don’t like Noah now are out of towners. Fans of other NBA franchises who just can’t stand that Noah has just enough skill to back up his mouth. Chicago loves him and likely always will. He is the new A.J Pierzynski, who was the new Jim McMahon, who was the new Norm Van Lier…and the beat goes on.

Noah is everything that is right about pro sports, and he smokes weed. He’s not an arrogant primadonna. He’s not lazy. He’s not soft. He doesn’t negotiate his contract in public. He gives time and money to charity. He constantly thanks and gives props to the fans. You need only have vision to see the effort he gives every season, every game, every play, every minute, every second. Joakim Noah is the heart and soul of the Bulls, but now the talent is matching the will. If those two continue to intersect and correlate with better tangible performances, he’ll be a legend of the game in addition to a legend of the city, which he already is.

#MCHM Spill Meets Att & Esq

Posted: March 3, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll
3/2/2014

| Previous articles about the West Virgina MCHM Chemical Spill can be found here & here |

When 10,000 gallons of an understudied, hazardous chemical leaks into both the water supply and water treatment system for 300,000 people, there are no happy endings. But in America, getting paid is a happy ending, especially for those who live paycheck to paycheck in place of seeking their unique purpose in the world. 20 lawsuits have already been filed related to the West Virginia Chemical Spill that took place last month.

The water utility company, chemical manufacturer (of MCHM), as well the now notorious Freedom Industries (the chemical company whose physical holding companies leaked) are all named in various lawsuits that will likely be compiled into one large class action suit akin to what Gulf Coast residents did with BP after the Deep Water Horizon oil leak.

Freedom has already filed for bankruptcy ahead of the pending litigations against them. If we’re all lucky perhaps Freedom’s current president Gary Southern and ex con ex president Carl Kennedy III will go to jail instead of having their bank accounts raided.

Hopefully the business owners, workers, and anyone who drank, cooked, or bathed in that water will get a payday to pay their current and future massive medical bills related to the poison their bodies brought in.

And maybe other states who publically criticize regulation of industry, as West Virginia was known to do, will learn the lessons of those in the meat packing industries at the turn of the 20th century. Without government regulation, industry will kill and destroy anything and everything around them to make and keep profit.

#TaxCode Changes Put on the Table

Posted: March 1, 2014 in Excess and Algorithms
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eanda logoajclogo2by @anarchyroll
2/27/2014

There are very few things that can actually change the American and/or global economy. The reason there are few things is because each one is not just big but gigantic in scope, nature, and application apparatus. A overhaul of the US tax code has been proposed by Michigan Republican David Camp of Michigan.

The banks hate it, retailers love it, Democrats say it’s dead on arrival, and Republicans aren’t really saying anything since it involves raising taxes on top earners. But it is a start, it is a physical, tangible bill, put on the table. The White House has acknowledged at least that much.

Many tax exemptions and tax breaks would be eliminated. Taxes would go down for individuals but go up for companies and corporations that earn X number of dollars. Income earned from investments would be taxed more which is very important. But there are multiple aspects that will prevent it from going anywhere, but it’s a start.

979 pages, which is the length of the bill, doesn’t exactly scream…simplified. But there must be a starting point on this issue, there must. The tax code in the United States is ridiculous and causes more problems than it solves. It favors the rich and hurts the poor. Too much money is hidden, sheltered, and shipped offshore, all of which must end.

Warren Buffet has famously said he should not pay a lower marginal tax rate than his secretary. The fact that is currently the norm, tells you all you need to know about the current tax code and tax policy in the United States. David Camps starting point is truly nothing more than a starting point but you can’t walk before you crawl. Camp’s bill begins the crawl forward, and forward is always the way to go.

#NSA Tries to Pass the Buck to #FBI

Posted: February 26, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll
2/26/2014

Nothing quite says business as usual in Washington DC like simply creating the illusion that change is being enacted. The latest chapter in the NSA bulk surveillance fallout thanks to Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing is the NSA trying to hand off and wash their hands of the metadata bulk collection to the FBI.  Republican Jim Sensenbrenner from Wisconsin has become the legit face of the anti NSA movement for those who consider what Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden did wrong.

Sensenbrenner’s stance is very simple; “Bulk collection has never been authorized by Congress and I intend to stop this blatant abuse of the law.”

Privacy advocates and the ACLU object to FBI option, as well as the other four options being considered since the FBI’s history of abusing the civil rights of the American public is, quite ripe. A full breakdown of the proposal is available at The Guardian. That is the news source Greenwald was working at when he first interviewed Snowden in June which became the whistleblowing bananza.  So they are always a trustworthy source for most hard news stories internationally.

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