Free Republic

The Fed Balance Sheet: What Is Uncle Sam's Largest Asset? By Doug Short June 8, 2012 (Note from dshort: I've updated the quiz based on yesterday's (Thursdays) Q1 Flow of Funds release. Hint: The correct answer is the same, just more incredible.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pop Quiz! Without recourse to your text, your notes or a Google search, what line item is the largest asset on Uncle Sam's balance sheet? A) U.S. Official Reserve Assets B) Total Mortgages C) Taxes Receivable D) Student Loans The correct answer, as of the latest Flow of Funds report for Q1 2012, is ... Student Loans....

Let us stipulate that the government shouldn’t be making loans to companies in the first place. It’s not a proper role for government, which perhaps more than any other entity on the planet is most incapable of understanding what makes private businesses profitable. That said, how have the two candidates for president differed when they have done what governments shouldn’t be doing in the first place? . . .

Minnesota nonprofit that's on the front lines of a growing debate over student-loan debt. Bloomberg Businessweek profiles Educational Credit Management Corp., one of the 32 “guaranty agencies" that oversee student loans for the U.S. Department of Education and try to recover money. Its bill collectors can be highly rewarded. ECMC's top collector took home $454,000 in just one year, twice as much as the U.S. secretary of education. The CEO of the group made $1.1 million in 2010. The company moved from downtown St. Paul to Oakdale a few years ago.

ight now, the U.S. Federal Housing Authority is offering historically low interest rates on home loans as part of an effort to kick-start the housing market. Under a plan introduced by President Barack Obama, an FHA-qualifying U.S. homebuyer can apply for a 30-year mortgage with a fixed interest rate of 3.75 percent and a 15-year fixed mortgage at 3 percent. FHA loans require as little as 3.5 percent of the home’s value up front in the form of a down payment. SNIPAccording to Edward Pinto, a resident fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, FHA loans are allowing a repeat...

A government policy of subsidizing loans and encouraging people to borrow huge amounts that many won’t be able to repay has run-up $1 trillion worth of questionable debt. A growing number of experts fear that borrowers are paying more than the market can support, and some economists are warning of a bubble that could trigger a larger financial crisis. A spokesman for the President’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says the industry is likely “too big to fail.” Unfortunately, these are not headlines from the 2008 home mortgage meltdown. They instead describe current reports about the state of student higher education...

New research shows how federal spending on higher education can backfire.Federal aid for students has increased 164% over the past decade, adjusted for inflation, according to the College Board. Yet three-quarters of Americans and even a majority of college presidents see college as unaffordable for most, and that sentiment has been steadily spreading, the Pew Research Center reports. Two new studies offer clues on why. One measures the degree to which some colleges reduce their own aid in response to increased federal aid. The other suggests federal aid is helping to push college costs higher.Recipients of federal Pell Grants have,...

Last week, the total amount of debt emanating from student loans in the U.S. reached $1 trillion. With the Great Recession still present in the daily lives of the middle class, salaried jobs for college graduates are tough to come by. Many have had to settle for low-wage positions stocking shelves in retail stores or serving coffee at the local Starbucks. According to the Associate Press, three out of five new graduates are unemployed. The dissatisfaction these bachelor's degree-holders have with the lack of jobs manifested into last fall's Occupy movement. Many "occupiers" naively directed their anger at capitalism and...

Inspired by President Obama’s cheap election-year politicking, Congress has launched into a frenzied, bipartisan panderfest over the Stafford loan program. Late last week, an emotional House speaker John Boehner led House Republicans to vote for an Obama-proposed giveaway he’d denounced just a few days previously. For those who don’t eagerly track the ins and outs of federally subsidized student loans, here’s the deal: Five years ago, in a piece of cheap political theater, Democrats in Congress wrote an additional sweetener for federally subsidized Stafford loans into the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. Beyond offering college loans at a guaranteed...

Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum warned that Mitt Romney might not present a "clear contrast" to President Obama in the general election. Judging by Monday's action on the campaign trail, Mr. Santorum had a point. On a day when the White House urged Congress to increase student-loan subsidies, Mr. Romney had an opportunity to draw a sharp distinction between the expanding Obama entitlement state and a plan to revive the private economy. But instead of laying out plans to create jobs and reduce government spending, the former Massachusetts governor arrived at the same policy conclusion as Barack Obama. "Given the...

No modern-day Paul Revere is taking a midnight ride to warn about this, but the defaults are coming. Many are already here. They are coming from student loans given to the wrong students for the wrong reasons. The portfolio of federally guaranteed student loans passed the one trillion dollar mark in early 2012, and it continues to grow. The portfolio consists not only of loans for students from low-income families currently in college but also of hundreds of millions of dollars of education loans taken out by students who graduated from college or quit before graduating that have not been...

Instead of saving up for their sons' college education, Bill Dunham and his wife are taking out loans for high school. Their eldest son will begin ninth grade at a school in Boston where annual tuition runs around $10,000 -- and they already pay $5,000 a year for their younger child. A project manager for a mechanical construction company, Dunham says the schools referred him to lenders who specialize in pre-college education loans. He's taking a loan to cover his son's full high school tuition, which he plans to repay over two years. "If we had the money, we'd pay...

Michigan Congressman Hansen Clarke, D-Detroit, recently introduced a bill to forgive college loan debt, provided an individual’s debt service payments consume 10 percent of his or her discretionary income for 10 years. If the former students are teachers or firefighters, their debt would be canceled after five years. The idea of a mass bailout is deeply flawed for a variety of reasons. First, in large part it would represent a “reverse Robin Hood” wealth transfer from the poor to the middle class, whose children are more likely to both attend college and incur college loan debt. 28 percent of Americans...

Sometimes when you peruse the headlines online, you have to wonder what Barack Obama is really thinking. Is he really that obtuse about green energy and it’s impact on America?

Anyone who has traded with Goldman Sachs most likely knows it is always an adversarial relationship. Banks that trade do so for themselves and employees are compensated according to the profits made on the desk. That is the nature of the business. However, Goldman Sachs is primarily a trader. That is where the profits have come from not the rudimentary workings of banking. So to some extent those who complain about employee compensation should invest in some other business where talent is not rewarded. That said, there is a substantial difference between making a normal spread and carrying a book...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Hybrid vehicle maker Bright Automotive has announced plans to close, blasting the Department of Energy for failing to finalize a loan that the firm says would have kept it afloat. In a letter dated Tuesday to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Bright CEO Reuben Munger and COO Mike Donoughe said they were withdrawing their application for a $314 million loan and winding down their operations. The executives claimed they had been strung along for the past few years as the government insisted on increasingly stringent loan requirements. "The actions -- or better said 'lack of action' --...

Dear Carrie: I am relatively new to investing. I have set money aside and plan to take an aggressive approach to paying off my student loans. Can you offer an ideal action plan for both investing and lowering student debt? --A Reader Dear Reader: With money set aside and wanting to put a plan in action, it sounds like you're already headed in the right direction. Now it's time to get down to specifics so that, ideally, you can accomplish both your investing and debt lowering goals -- and then some. Student debt can be daunting, and you're right to...

Have the youth given up on Obama? By Brad Chase - Special to CNN In 2008, the youth vote helped sweep Barack Obama into office.  Americans 18-29 spread the word on social media, energized fundraising and went to the polls. In 2012, the youth vote is moving on and throwing those omnipresent “Hope” bumper stickers and t-shirts in garbage bins.   Not because of apathy.  Not because another candidate generates more enthusiasm.  Not because of his character.  Not because they think voting is pointless.  The 18-29 vote is up for grabs in 2012 because youth can’t afford cars to put...

Dear Massachusetts Moms and Dads: When your kids come home from college this Christmas season and you’re gathered around the tree in the warm glow of an open fire, take a moment to lean over, put your arm around them and ask: “What the hell are you thinking!?” It’s called the “Higher Ed Bubble,” and it’s about to burst. For years the costs of college have been rising much faster than the rate of inflation while the vast increase in the number of degrees — particularly low-brain-wattage bachelor of arts degrees — has lowered their marketplace value. As a result,...

The government has pulled roughly even with the private sector as a source of home mortgages and consumer credit, with both financing $6.4 trillion in outstanding loans last quarter, Federal Reserve data show. This represents a dramatic reversal from 2006, when private-sector financing supplied nearly $2 in outstanding home mortgages and consumer credit for every $1 of government-financed loans.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Laurie, who can't say where she is. Is that right? She's worried about lawsuits, so she can't say where she is. Laurie, welcome to the EIB Network. You're worried about the lawsuits from what you're going to say here? CALLER: Well, it's possible, Rush, and, by the way, it's an honor to speak to you. RUSH: Thank you. CALLER: I worked as both a packager and an advertising executive for a mortgage brokerage firm. I saw the rise and fall of the housing market and what infuriates me about when Obama speaks or Barney Frank or anyone...