Remember the housing meltdown? Tough to forget isn’t it. The formula for the housing boom and bust was simple. A lot of easy money being lent to buyers who couldn’t afford the money they were borrowing. …

Can someone please explain to me how what is happening in higher education is any different ?

Its far too easy to borrow money for college. Did you know that there is more outstanding debt for student loans than there is for Auto Loans or Credit Card loans ? That’s right. The 37mm holders of student loans have more debt than the 175mm or so credit card owners in this country and more than the all of the debt on cars in this country. While the average student loan debt is about 23k. The median is close to $12,500. And growing. Past 1 TRILLION DOLLARS.

We freak out about the Trillions of dollars in debt our country faces. What about the TRILLION DOLLARs plus in debt college kids are facing? …

The Higher Education Industry is very analogous to the Newspaper industry. By the time they realize they need to change their business model it will be too late. Higher Education’s legacy infrastructure, employee costs /structures and debt costs will keep them from being able to re calibrate to a new generation of competitors. …

The Coming Meltdown in College Education & Why The Economy Won’t Get Better Any Time Soon

Controversial. Read the many, many comments on that post.

But I think Cuban’s got a good point. In 10-20yrs Universities will be far different than today. What we are doing now is unsustainable.

Consumer Energy Report:

If you were to survey people and ask the question “Should we subsidize oil companies?” — the overwhelming majority would undoubtedly respond “No!” The notion that we are subsidizing oil companies generates outrage in many people, but in this article I will show why these subsidies aren’t going to go away any time soon. The reason may surprise you. …

… The summary of oil-related subsidies for 2010 totals $4.5 billion. That is a number often thrown out there; $4 billion a year or so in support for those greedy oil companies. …

The single largest expenditure is just over $1 billion for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is designed to protect the U.S. from oil shortages.

The second largest category is just under $1 billion in tax exemptions for farm fuel. …

The third largest category? $570 million for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. …

Many smaller subsidies are intended to keep Oil jobs in the USA, rather than overseas.

When President Obama and the Democratic National Committee complain about Oil Subsidies, they’re being disingenuous. No Democratic President is going to cut them. Much.

In fact, No money from the U.S. Treasury goes to the oil industry. Everything is a tax break.

Read the article for your self – The Hard Truth: Even Liberals are Big Fans of Oil Subsidies

related – Washington Post Fact Checker – Oil War: The ad battle between ‘Big Oil’ and DNC, Part 2

After all that, I still trust that Obama is more likely to take the side of the consumer over Big Oil. But not by much. Neither he nor Romney are going to lower the price of gas at the pump. Nor the profits of American Oil companies.

… China now accounts for a fifth of global manufacturing. Its factories have made so much, so cheaply that they have curbed inflation in many of its trading partners. But the era of cheap China may be drawing to a close. …

… Foxconn, a Taiwanese contract manufacturer that makes Apple’s iPads (and much more besides) in Shenzhen, put up salaries by 16-25% last month. …

… if China’s currency and shipping costs were to rise by 5% annually and wages were to go up by 30% a year, by 2015 it would be just as cheap to make things in North America as to make them in China and ship them there (see chart). In reality, the convergence will probably be slower. But the trend is clear. …

If cheap China is fading, what will replace it? …

read more on Economist – The end of cheap China

Best Buy is not dead yet.

… it plans to close 50 “big-box” U.S. stores, reflecting the shift in electronics retail as it opens 100 new “small-format” Best Buy Mobile stores. …

Details.

Or maybe it is — Cringely – Best Buy is Doomed

I wish Amazon Canada would expand their line of goods. I buy nothing from Amazon though I love the company.

(via Daring Fireball)

It airs April 24th.

Click PLAY or watch a PREVIEW on YouTube.

People would be more upset about what’s happened if they could only understand it better.

(via Kottke)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Kottke)

But the most recent TAL came as a big surprise.

Turns out that many times it’s the politicians hounding the lobbyists to make decisions. And write legislation. Not the other way around.

As always, well worth a listen …

This American Life BROADCAST: MAR-30-12

For anyone who has ever heard the term “Washington insider” and felt outside — we are with you. So this week, we go inside the rooms where the deals get made, to the actual moment that the checks change hands — and we ask the people writing and receiving the checks what, exactly, is the money buying?

Things are getting worse, by the way. Ever since the right leaning Supreme Court ruled on the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision.

They decided that Political action committees (PACs) may accept unlimited contributions from individuals, unions, and corporations (both for profit and not-for-profit) for the purpose of making independent expenditures for and against politicians.

The best commentary on that idiotic decision was by comedian Stephen Colbert. He set up his own SuperPAC. Then had Jon Stewart (his boss) run it. Independently.

Here’s one of the TV ads paid for by Colbert’s SuperPAC. Mitt Romney is a serial killer.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

NY Times op-ed By PAUL KRUGMAN“

Florida’s now-infamous Stand Your Ground law, which lets you shoot someone you consider threatening without facing arrest, let alone prosecution, sounds crazy — and it is. And it’s tempting to dismiss this law as the work of ignorant yahoos. But similar laws have been pushed across the nation, not by ignorant yahoos but by big corporations.

Specifically, language virtually identical to Florida’s law is featured in a template supplied to legislators in other states by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-backed organization that has managed to keep a low profile even as it exerts vast influence (only recently, thanks to yeoman work by the Center for Media and Democracy, has a clear picture of ALEC’s activities emerged). And if there is any silver lining to Trayvon Martin’s killing, it is that it might finally place a spotlight on what ALEC is doing to our society — and our democracy.

What is ALEC? Despite claims that it’s nonpartisan, it’s very much a movement-conservative organization, funded by the usual suspects: the Kochs, Exxon Mobil, and so on. Unlike other such groups, however, it doesn’t just influence laws, it literally writes them, supplying fully drafted bills to state legislators. In Virginia, for example, more than 50 ALEC-written bills have been introduced, many almost word for word. And these bills often become law. …

Lobbyists, Guns and Money

One day historians will marvel at the stupidity of having for profit corporations write legislation.

related – Wikipedia – ALEC

Lawyer / lobbyists sell their souls for money.

Everybody knows it. … So why does anyone believe a word they say?

Comic author Rob Reid unveils Copyright Math (TM), a remarkable new field of study based on actual numbers from entertainment industry lawyers and lobbyists.

Rob Reid is a humor author and the founder of the company that created the music subscription service Rhapsody.

TED Talks – Rob Reid: The $8 billion iPod

Click PLAY or watch it on TED.

(via Michael Geist)

Read Mad.