The Next Bubble to Pop -- College Education Loans

Massive increases in tuition even as federal and state subsidies and grants to families falls; a decline in the average family's income over the past thirty years; the rise of for-profit on-line universities that target minorities and the poor a la the sub-prime scams of a few years ago; high unemployment for recent graduates; and a federal backstop for potential losses to investors, all point to a growing debt bubble of nearly one trillion dollars.

The shoe is about to drop.

http://nplusonemag.com/bad-education

Decline of the Galactic Republic, Episode I

Part of a continuing serial which ends with the triumph of good over evil...


The money quote:


"In phrasing a bit less poetic than the Dewey quote I titled this post with, a "frustrated moderate Democratic senator" described the battle as emblematic of the broader tone in Washington: 

I’m surprised at how much of our time is spent trying to divide up the spoils between various economic interests. I had no idea. I thought we’d be focused on civil liberties, on education policy, energy policy and so on. The fights down here can be put in two or three categories: The big greedy bastards against the big greedy bastards; the big greedy bastards against the little greedy bastards; and some cases even the other little greedy bastards against the other little greedy bastards."

For more:

 http://balkin.blogspot.com/2011/04/politics-is-shadow-cast-on-society-by.html

Lock-Out

Thought I share this piece on the current collective bargaining (or lack of it) between the NFL and the Players Association. It makes some interesting observations of the current economic crisis through the prism of pro-football -- class politics runs through the hole in the middle. It's one of the best pieces on sports I've read in the past six months.

http://nplusonemag.com/eff-you

(Also, if you haven't checked out the magazine N+1, you're missing out on some excellent cultural commentary. It's the best small-circulation cultural magazine I've read since the Baffler.)

Winning the Future

Well, here goes nothing. I've been procrastinating giving blogging a try, but friends have pressed me to start one up. I'm only about five years behind the curve.

A blog, I suppose, is a vote of confidence in the future. This blog's name takes inspiration from a psychological condition whereby the sufferer is unable to recall past events, particularly those further back in time from the point of trauma. It seems a potent metaphor for those of us living in an age of instantaneous niche communication and micro-publicity. When it becomes impossible to latch onto the 24-hour news-cycle, to recall public events or promises from six months ago, much less connect moment-to-moment in a chain of significance, then history is lost. I'd like this blog to be the equivalent of deep-breathing, a calm at the eye of the pixelated storm that makes up our culture. Look for musings on politics, culture, and personal experience to come.