Debt in our Nation:Doubt in our System

History Has Been Made...

2008-11-05T09:29:00.000-08:00

During this crazy election there have been bitter words, disrespectful people and so much drama, but last night all that ended at 10:58 pm. I was in my friends room watching the turn out. I remember when the screen said 207-Obama: 95-McCain, then suddenly it changed to 207-Obama: 148 or 149-McCain. At this point I had started to realize, maybe McCain does have a chance and people doubted how loyal his voters were. But no, that was not the case. About 3 minutes later MSNBC announced "Projected Winner: Barack Obama".

Next minute MSNBC announced "President of the USA: Barack Obama". The 44th president is Barack Obama!

It was a momentous occasion. My friends and I were completely speechless, all we could do was go outside and scream. I could barely talk on my phone or text, it was truly an experience.

After the announcement, everyone decided to go to this street named Franklin Street. Franklin Street is the place where all the parties are, where people can go crazy, a lot of bars and food and always people to have fun with. Last night, well this morning, Franklin Street was blocked off because of all the people who came there to celebrate President Barack Obama. O-B-A-M-A is all you heard along with screaming and prayers.

The most emotional part to me is the fact that I helped him win. I voted and my vote counted. No one can take my participation in history away from me and no one can no longer say, "I Can't".

Better years are yet to come.

Links

2008-10-29T12:44:00.000-07:00

Here are a few links that explain my topic in full text.
Some go with the topic of debt, while others focus more on how debt is affecting education.
ENDULGE!:

John McCain's Stance on Higher Education: 1

Barack Obama's Stance on Higher Education: 2

Leaving the Country to Avoid Debt??: 3

Debt Forgiveness: 4

Paulson Plan: 5

Bailout Plan: 6

Student Loans: 7

Student Debt: 8

Housing/Debt: 9

Numbers: 10

My Progress...

2008-10-29T12:43:00.002-07:00

The day I began this blog project, I had no idea what i wanted to write about nor much about the issues that surrounded the election. After hearing about the $700 bailout plan, it struck an interest in our nation's debt and how we were going to fix it, if we could. At first, I was extremely nervous and i really did not understand what I had to do. So, here I was, with this important topic on debt not knowing where to start nor where to go for information.

Within a week, I knew more about my topic than I did about some of my relatives. The websites given and class and simply searching google.com helped me a lot in becoming informed. The only problem with this was the fact that my information was scattered and I essentially didn't have a focus point in this topic. Basically, I was rambling about debt being a problem and how to fix it, but I was missing the information which explained what it affected to make it such a problem. Somewhere around my analysis post, I thought that in order for me to have a focus point and be really involved in this topic, I needed to find it's importance to myself and how it affects me. With this in mind, I decided that the debt and the lack of money available for loans my focus should be on education and how debt is affecting the ability to afford an education.

I cannot explain how much I've have learned just by focusing. I know for a fact if it weren't for this project I would not have been nearly as knowledgeable on debt and education as I am now. I have grown as a thinker and as an unbias blogger. I can represent the facts at hand without getting my personal beliefs in the way, yet at the same time not ignoring what I believe in. The election is more valuable to me, because I realize that I am one of the people who have a say and how other people's lives are affected just by voting. I am proud that I voted based off of facts that I looked up myself, understood and agreed with rather than just listening to what others say and siding with them. I can say I know each presidential candidate's stance on the issues and have an intelligent conversation or debate about these issues.

The habit of me relying on someone else to tell me something or do something for me has been fairly reduced due to this blog, because I can do it on my own in a way I understand it more.

50,000 Mix-Up?

2008-10-29T12:43:00.001-07:00

In the state of Georgia, 50,000 voters were flagged saying that their personal identification was mixed-up in the computer system. It is said that almost 5,000 of them may not be able to vote and are being doubted of their citizenship.

There is a lawsuit currently against Georgia, because it is said to be a crime to purge large amounts of voters 90 days before the election.

Election expert, Wendy Weiser said that every year election officials purge millions of voters from the voter rolls, which include those who are vulnerable to manipulation.

There was also 20,000 people in Florida who experienced the same problem.

Some people are saying the election is rigged, but experts say it is computer glitch, and voters whose personal identification don't match up with the data are systematically cut out.

You choose what to believe, but just make sure you get out there and vote.

The Implications of This...

2008-10-26T19:24:00.001-07:00

After theorizing the relationship between the housing crisis and the cost/ability to afford education I was able to see what the real implications could be if the worst were to happen.

If the problem with the the housing crisis was to go on without being solved I believe it would essentially increase the difficulty for college students to afford school, leaving a lot of people without the opportunity to get a higher level education. Almost 60% of all undergraduate students have to obtain loans just to afford college. The ability to be approved for a loan is getting harder and a lot of students will be affected by the results of the housing sitatuion.

The chance of getting a loan is extremely hard because the banks fund loaning and with the banks being affected by the housing crisis, they have no money to loan to students. Therefore, if they do approve loans, the loans now have higher interest rates and are not nearly enough to pay for everything needing to be paid for.

Just a Few Numbers..

2008-10-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

Estimate provided by CNET NEWS

Financial bailout package approved= up to or more than $700 billion

Bear Stearns financing= $29 billion

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac nationalization= $200 billion

AIG loan and nationalization= $85 billion

Federal Housing Administration housing rescue bill= $300 billion

Mortgage community grants= $4 billion

JPMorgan Chase repayments= $87 billion

Loans to banks via Fed's Term Auction Facility= $200 billion+

Loans from Depression-era Exchange Stabilization Fund= $50 billion

Purchases of mortgage securities by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac= $144 billion

POSSIBLE TOTAL= $1.8 trillion+
NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS PER U.S. CENSUS= 105,480,101
POSSIBLE COST PER HOUSEHOLD= $17,064+

Recommended Blogs

2008-10-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

The following are blogs that I recommend based on the issues at hand in the election this year:

Jumping the Fence: This blog discusses the problems of immigration. The blogger does a good job of expressing her opinion, but at the same time gives enough information in order for you to make your own opinion. The blogger also provides clear examples and information tat I have either haven't paid attention to or didn't know at all.

Velveeta Democracy: This blog focuses on the details of the Bailout Plan. This blog is a lot like mine, as far as being associated with the debt. The blogger is very unbiased and answers almost every question you might have about the subject.

War on Drugs: I really like this blog. It goes over the problems of drugs in our country and the presidential's candidates view on the issue. The blogger provides great detail and very reliable sources for her information. It is an extremely interesting topic.

Theory Posting

2008-10-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

The issue of debt is a really big issue during this election. I am still concerned on how it and the housing market will affect those in school, more specifically college students.

Both Barack Obama and John McCain agreed on the idea of the bailout plan and agree on the idea of buying back debt from homeowners directly to fix the housing crisis, versus the original idea in the bailout plan to buy the debt back from the banks.

Once the housing crisis and banks are doing well again, there will be a better opportunity for college students to get financial aid and continue their education. It seems that the availability of financial aid and the housing crisis directly affect one another, with the bailout bill being the common ground and deciding factor of how the problem will be fixed. If the plan works... great for both, but if it doesn't... very bad.

3rd Debate...The Public Polls In Favor Of...

2008-10-15T20:09:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama.

October 15, 2008, the last presidential debate before the November 4, 2008 election day was shown at 9 pm eastern.

According to CNN, Barack Obama won the debate 58% to 31%.

Expressed more views: Obama
More attacks: McCain
Likability: Obama
Stronger Leader: Obama

These numbers show that Presidential Candidate Barack Obama, focused more on the issues at hand and less on attacking his opponate.

Criticism has been brought about towards Barack Obama when it comes to his plans, saying he plans to spend too much money. McCain did not express his distinct plans for the public, but he contnued to talk about cutting taxes and vetoing any bills that include excess government spending.

According to the polls, voted on by the public, McCain lost some of his popularity while Obama gained.

More to come later.

Banks...Nationalizing....What?!?

2008-10-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

October 13, 2008.

History? Yes.

What happened? Well...

Here's a timeline for you:

1.The $700 billion bailout bill was passed, enabling the treasury secretary to buy up to $700 billion dollars in bad debt from the banks.

2.Nationalizing banks came from England as a solution to our debt situation.

3.NY Times reported that the money from the bailout plan would be put directly into the banks instead of buying back mortgages which would partially nationalize the banks.

After this choice was put into perspective, the stock market went up over 900 points. Maybe this could be a good choice.

Expounding on Obama's $4,000 relief for students.

2008-10-09T08:24:00.000-07:00

As, mentioned in my blog before this one, Obama plans to provide $4,000 to each student going to college. This comes along with an agreed 100 hours community service for the students receiving it. Also, not mentioned before is that this action will cost approximately $10 billion. On another side, I do not believe 10 billion dollars is alot. In my opinion, we could take $10 billion out of the bailout bill and it wouldn't make too much of a big difference, or wouldn't be as much of sacrifice seeing that it's going towards the future of people who can one day be president or lawmakers.

Here are two articles on this topic:

This one seems to be in favor of the plan:
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/06/17/obama-promises-college-students-relief-in-exchange-for-community-service/

This one seems to find errors in the plan:
http://www.american.com/archive/2008/june-06-08/the-problem-with-obama2019s-tuition-tax-credit

Hope this helps explain better, if not leave me a comment and I will try again. :)

Debt=Education Crisis???? What? But How?

2008-10-08T18:34:00.000-07:00

We all know about the $700 billion bailout bill being passed correct? Yes! (if not, look at my blog titled "Bailout Bill Passed..."). Now, just a recap. The bailout bill came to be because of the bad assets acquired by the banks primarily through the housing crisis.

Breaking this issue down and really thinking about what this means for the cost of education is a wake up call for all people attempting to go to or stay in college. The cost of education is rising approximately 6.3 percent a year for private schools and 6.6 percent a year for public schools, and it shows no sign of slowing with this economic crisis.

Now, how do a lot of people find funding for school? Loans. But, when government starts to create tighter restrictions on loans, then that's when I ponder about an education crisis.

McCain's way to dealing with the education is levering the price sector and expanding the lender-of-last resort capability. The Federal Reserve has the power of being the lender to banks if there is no other way for borrowing. Its purpose is to protect investments of the people and prevent another panic of 1907 when all depositors removed their savings from the National Bank of Commerce, causing stress to banks. This way, more students would be able to obtain loans, but how great is it when these college students continue to build debt because they have to continuously take out loans? Not great at all.

Obama's solution is to "make the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans, and will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely free for most students". While this is also a nice plan, it is only $4,000 and I presume there will be some kind of criteria for students to receive this "free" money. So, to those students who do not meet the assumed requirements, they are still stuck to build debt throught loans. Even those who do get a $4,000, I know for a fact that is not enough money for any of the schools I applied to, leaving me and people like me, to once again turn to loans and debt. In fact, it may not even be enough for community college students; their college costs are also rising tremendously. The tuition itself is around $4,000 and then you have to tack on personals, transportation, food etc.

Even with all the flaws it may incur, Obama's plan sounds much more reasonable, because it is at least giving something to college students without them having to pay it back.

Both of their plans sound fairly reasonable for the right now, but with this Bailout Bill taking up approximately $700 billion, it makes me wonder where all this money is going to come for funding. Not to mention, McCain's $300 billion plan to help the mortgage crisis is also taking from available funds. But, those aren't the only funds coming out. The Federal Reserve is lending up to $37.8 billion to AIG for troubled insurers. It seems that the focus of the government money is on housing problems. Also, makes me wonder if the Bailout Bill will include student debt. It is said to include student loans, but nothing is said about the debt that has already been accumulated during the downfall of our economy.

As far as state help, part of the money for college in North Carolina comes from the lottery, approximately 35%. The other 65% can be filled with grants, scholarships and money saved, but not for everyone. Around 66% of students graduate with some type of debt, which obviously means, us students are not getting enough resources for the cost of college. This is a truly an academic crisis.

The VPs speak before the passing of the bill by the H.O.Reps

2008-10-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv5gOBT2auo

The youtube.com link above the video does not work.
Use this one: video!

Bailout Bill Passed....What Changed Their Minds???

2008-10-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

Lets take a minute to go over what the "Bailout Bill" exactly is. The $700 billion bailout bill became a possible solution for helping the US economy from shutting down due to the troubled assets. The Treasury Secretary has this power to purchase as much at $700 billion in these bad assets.

On Monday, September 29, 2008, the bill was rejected 228-205. Contrary to what most suspected of the voting turn out, only a third of the Republicans voting, backed the plan while almost two-thirds of the Democratic party supported the bailout. It is said that this bill failed the first time because it would not be protecting the tax payers and that was thought of as unfair. Those in favor of the bill argued that it would protect the bill, and even had it in the original draft under Section 3. Considerations. This still was not enough.

The presidential nominees once again, called for another vote on the bill.

On Friday, October 3, 2008, the bill was passed.

Now, what was changed within the bill to help it pass?
Was it Wachovia being overtaken by Citigroup Inc.?
Was it the plunge of stocks by nearly 800 points?
Or, maybe the Nasdaq drop of 9.14 percent?

All of these were issues that called for reconsideration of the bill, but also, the bill was revised. The new bill added $150,000 to the already $100,00 insurance of bank deposits and added up to $150 billion in tax break extensions the middle class and more. Also, the severance payment of Wall Street executives retained limitations.

With these modifications, the bill was passed! 263-171.

The Right Now...

2008-10-02T06:23:00.000-07:00

As of today, the total national debt comes to around 53 trillion dollars. According to investmentu.com, the debt rise about 2-3 trillion dollars are year. This crisis is the second largest in history! Consumer debt comes to 2.6 trillion dollars.

According to thestar.com, the debt is around 10.6 trillion dollars.

Either way, our debt in the US is in the trillions of dollars and it is affecting everyone.

From housing to food, nobody is immune for the debt we have here.

"The government reaching the requested debt limit would entail every man, woman and child in the U.S. owing more than $37,000 each. The median U.S. income last year was $50,233." This quote from also from thestar.com, same article as listed linked above, is extremely heart-wrenching. What does this mean for the people who are below the "median"? Or even more, those who are below this median and are trying to go to college?

Only time can tell. But more will come in later posts!