Ben Bernanke Says That His Son Will Graduate With $400,000 Of Student Loan Debt

[The Northbreather]

Answer to the first sentence of the article.......Me.

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-student-loan-delinquencies-20120305,0,3862067.story

Edit: here's the original link from a different article that didn't show up
http://www.yolohub.com/economy/ben-bernanke-says-that-his-son-will-graduate-with-400000-of-student-loan-debt

[heavenlyboy34]

Is there an article link here that I can't see? :confused:

[WilliamC]

So in addition to being a terrible choice for FED Chairman Bernake is also a terrible father?

I mean who in his position wouldn't pay for their children's college education?

Or do bankers simply eat their own young?

[MRoCkEd]

Wtf? Did he borrow his way through a top undergrad and law school?

EDIT: Actually, Med School


Bernanke, in his exchange with lawmakers, added a personal dimension to the student loan issue, saying that his son in medical school was expecting to owe $400,000 when he graduates.

[UMULAS]

GUYS IT'S OK. HE CAN GET MONEY FROM THE FED TO PAY HIS DEBT.

[oyarde]

If that is true , that is messed up and I do not feel sorry for those two , at all!

[Esoteric]

That's because that he knows that's how you get ahead in a keynsean system. Cheap Credit is King.

[BlackTerrel]

Debt isn't always bad. I have a buddy who is neuroseurgeon resident and when he is done he expects to make 850K/year. He'll have 500K or so in debt when he's done but in that situation it is worth it.

The people who go to University of Phoenix and graduate with 100K debt are far worse off than the medical school kid (with a rich ass father) who are 400K in debt.

You can actually do something with a medical degree.

[fletcher]

Bernanke knows that he will be able to pay that off in a decade for less than the cost of car. He probably recommended it to his son.

[onlyrp]

isn't that petty change for him to bail out?

[Jordan]

Debt isn't always bad. I have a buddy who is neuroseurgeon resident and when he is done he expects to make 850K/year. He'll have 500K or so in debt when he's done but in that situation it is worth it.

The people who go to University of Phoenix and graduate with 100K debt are far worse off than the medical school kid (with a rich ass father) who are 400K in debt.

You can actually do something with a medical degree.

That's a lot of coin, but I guess it's what you'd expect from a career that requires 14 years of study, residency, and what not. Everyone else you know in college leaves at 22 - you're done a decade later. :eek:

[QE Is Theft]

One word: propaganda.

The Bernank probably has billions in XYZ accounts in XYZ countries all over the world.

[The Northbreather]

Thanks to the person who fixed the link:)

[phill4paul]

No problem. Student loan bail-out and forgiveness on the horizon. Who the hell will bitch about it. Students AND parents are gonna think the government is giving them a freebie.

[oyarde]

Debt isn't always bad. I have a buddy who is neuroseurgeon resident and when he is done he expects to make 850K/year. He'll have 500K or so in debt when he's done but in that situation it is worth it.

The people who go to University of Phoenix and graduate with 100K debt are far worse off than the medical school kid (with a rich ass father) who are 400K in debt.

You can actually do something with a medical degree. I do not guess that a degree at University of Pheonix would cost more than a few thousand , and you could probably pay as you go if you have a job ?

[tbone717]

I checked their site. A BA in Business will cost you about 60K

[RickyJ]

Who cares to be honest. Ben Bernanke should not have had any kids, he should be rotting in jail.

[angelatc]

GUYS IT'S OK. HE CAN GET MONEY FROM THE FED TO PAY HIS DEBT.

Eh, his old man will just inflate it away for him.

[angelatc]

I do not guess that a degree at University of Pheonix would cost more than a few thousand , and you could probably pay as you go if you have a job ?

University of Phoenix is insanely expensive.

[oyarde]

I checked their site. A BA in Business will cost you about 60K That sounds high , what else do they have ? I was kind of hoping to buy myself a law degree or PHD when I retire ( make the envelopes look better on my Foundation :) ) I paid 38K for my first house .$900 for my first car ( one owner , 82,000 miles ) . I never paid for any school , my employers paid for it. I did get to see the prices though.

[oyarde]

University of Phoenix is insanely expensive. Why so much ?? where I am from , most people just used IUPUI .

[The_Ruffneck]

at least his kid appears to be helping society by becoming a medical professional rather than destroying it by becoming a central banker
most kids of his intelligence choose the finance route over medical school nowdays because of the insane bonuses available , he could easily have walked into a cushy job at the fed if he wanted to

[anaconda]

Ben knows he'll be paying it back with increasingly worthless dollars. Maybe Ben knows hyperinflation is on the way.

[BlackTerrel]

I do not guess that a degree at University of Pheonix would cost more than a few thousand , and you could probably pay as you go if you have a job ?

It's expensive as fuck and will have basically ZERO benefit to getting you a job later.

You could go to Stanford or Harvard and get $200K in debt and you would be able to more than make up for it over your life. If this was an option for me I would do it in a heartbeat. University of Phoenix will cost you over $50K (a lot less) but most people will not make that up. The degree will not make them $50K more valuable going forward.

There are 1,000 colleges in the country - most are somewhere in the range between Harvard and Phoenix.

[awake]

Don't worrry, daddy will inflate him out of it. At 10 percent inflation, how many years untill his real debt load is halved?

[Kregisen]

Don't worrry, daddy will inflate him out of it. At 10 percent inflation, how many years is untill his real debt load is halved?

Inflation today and for the last few decades has been about 3% on average. Are you saying you think inflation will reach 10% a year in the near future?

[awake]

Inflation today and for the last few decades has been about 3% on average. Are you saying you think inflation will reach 10% a year in the near future?

In some sectors it already is. See healthcare, oil, and food prices.

http://www.shadowstats.com/imgs/sgs-cpi.gif?hl=ad&t=

[frodus24]

University of Phoenix is a for-profit school. They are very expensive as I have worked for one of their "sister" programs. All you essentially get is Pell(if you qualify) and loans. When government subsidizes education, the price goes through the roof!

[oyarde]

Inflation today and for the last few decades has been about 3% on average. Are you saying you think inflation will reach 10% a year in the near future? Yeah , or more , on anything that matters....

[LibForestPaul]

That's a lot of coin, but I guess it's what you'd expect from a career that requires 14 years of study, residency, and what not. Everyone else you know in college leaves at 22 - you're done a decade later. :eek:
yes, nice racket

[oyarde]

I am trying to figure out how any responsible lender could justify floating a half million loan to a kid without some insurance on the investment ........

[oyarde]

In THIs day and age ,with govt takeover of health care , what percentage of these kids will ever live long enough to see enough patients to make more than a million dollars that does not go to student loans , fed taxes , state taxes , insurance , county tax , social security tax , medicaretax ?? Probably have to pull in millions ....

[oyarde]

How many would ever repay this loan ??

[slamhead]

Thats ok. Daddy through his political connections he will have some foreign bank pay off the loan as a favor and have the tax payers pay for it. Either that or daddy will get him some $1 million/yr job mowing grass.

[oyarde]

And to think , in the past six years or so , I have wasted time reading articles about the avg American family having 9k in credit card debt , pfft .

[xFiFtyOnE]

The problem is you either get a degree and become a debt slave or live in poverty the rest of your life. Far too many useless degrees and fluff jobs that require degrees now. Don't get me wrong, I want my doctor to have medical degree. I want the guy who designed the bridge I drive over every day to have an engineering degree. But you have places requiring degrees for positions like fast food restaurant and gas station managers. Degrees to be a salesman. Degrees in criminal justice to be a detective, when several friends of mine who are cops say the "promotion" to detective is more like punishment (more work, no extra pay). I'm not even going to touch all the useless art degrees and such...they pretty much speak for themselves. Something really needs to change in our society, and fast.

[roho76]

at least his kid appears to be helping society by becoming a medical professional rather than destroying it by becoming a central banker
most kids of his intelligence choose the finance route over medical school nowdays because of the insane bonuses available , he could easily have walked into a cushy job at the fed if he wanted to

Didn't you hear? All you need is knowledge in social medicine to be a central banker.

[PauliticsPolitics]

$400K in student debt?
Means three things:
1. Not all that smart (no scholarships)
2. An obsession with being associated with the elite (only overpriced "first class" schools)
3. Not good at making smart financial decisions, not concerned with reality or efficiency.

I'd say: like father like son.

[Kregisen]

In some sectors it already is. See healthcare, oil, and food prices.

http://www.shadowstats.com/imgs/sgs-cpi.gif?hl=ad&t=

What does the Alternate CPI track? And some things like oil or food have been going up fast for many reasons, not just because of an expansion in the money supply. Threatening to attack Iran which causes Iran to threaten to close off the Strait of Hormuz is skyrocketing oil prices. There is also a large increase in global demand, that's what's driving the prices up.

[Zippyjuan]

What does the Alternate CPI track? And some things like oil or food have been going up fast for many reasons, not just because of an expansion in the money supply. Threatening to attack Iran which causes Iran to threaten to close off the Strait of Hormuz is skyrocketing oil prices. There is also a large increase in global demand, that's what's driving the prices up.

Every decade, based on census data, the "basket of goods" (which includes thousands of things) which comprise the CPI and how much weighting those things get is updated. The "alternstive CPI" uses the one created based on the 1980 census- assuming that people's spending habits have not changed since then- even though they have. We don't spend the same amounts on food. We don't buy the same things (how are VCR sales doing these days? Still want your MTV?). Updating the CPI attempts to capture these changes. If you spend eleven percent of your budget typically on food, then an incease in the price of food will have an eleven percent impact on the overall inflation rate. We have seen new products (personal computers, cell phones, giant TVs- plasma or LCDs) come along. Over time the size of homes have gotten bigger- more rooms- and cars have gotten smaller but more complex. Maybe you went to the movies more and today you stay home and watch something from NetFlix. How do you capture what changed? Changing how the CPI is calculated is necessary if it is to reflect what people actually use their money for. If we spent more or less on a category we need to change the weighting it gets in the final figure- otherwise more distortions creep in.

Let me give an example of how that works. Say your budget was $100 and you spent $11 of that on food- which is roughly what most people today actually do spend. If the price of food doubles, your food costs go to $22 and it will take you $111 to maintain the same standard of living you had before. Let's assume that the prices of everything else stayed the same. Even though the price of food is now twice as much, the overall inflation you face was not 100% (which would have meant that you now need $200 to buy everything) but instead was 11%.

If we go back 50 years ago people spent 30% of their budget on food. Let's run our exercise again using that figure. You were spending $100 and $30 of that went to food. Doubling that means now it will cost you $130 to eat the same stuff and buy all the same other stuff you used to. In this case, your overall inflation impact was 30%. If we used the same weighting we gave it back then on today it would overstate the effect of food prices on the total inflation rate. It could just as easily understate the inflationary impact of other things in our basket as well.

[heavenlyboy34]

The problem is you either get a degree and become a debt slave or live in poverty the rest of your life. Far too many useless degrees and fluff jobs that require degrees now. Don't get me wrong, I want my doctor to have medical degree. I want the guy who designed the bridge I drive over every day to have an engineering degree. But you have places requiring degrees for positions like fast food restaurant and gas station managers. Degrees to be a salesman. Degrees in criminal justice to be a detective, when several friends of mine who are cops say the "promotion" to detective is more like punishment (more work, no extra pay). I'm not even going to touch all the useless art degrees and such...they pretty much speak for themselves. Something really needs to change in our society, and fast.
Bah. There's plenty of opportunity out there for creative, motivated people. There may be another Steve Jobs just getting started as we chat about this. I would recommend apprenticeship or vocational school for most people today. The world needs more people with real skills and fewer people with fluff degrees. Hell, degree inflation has made the Master's the new Bachelor's for all intents and purposes.

[The_Ruffneck]

Didn't you hear? All you need is knowledge in social medicine to be a central banker.
Dr Bernankes advice to an alcoholic = drink more!
He learnt that off his old man.