Today in America: Prices and Debt Rising, Wages Flat, R Word Coming?

Remember our country America? The one that we all live in every day and not the country formerly referred to as Iraq that we blew up and can no longer put back together in a self sustaining fashion.

Well, we have a plethora of our own Fd up problems that everyone faces here. I could write down the long laundry but I just read a great recap of the state of things domestically here in the US by the Boomnan Tribune.

"What costs $80 buckaroos?" you ask. The answer is: The price of a barrel of crude oil, my friends. And isn't that just wonderful news for all the little people, like you and me?

The price of oil last night broke through the $80 a barrel level for the first time on fears of winter supply shortages. [...]

Analysts said the 500,000 barrels per day increase in quotas from November announced by Opec this week had not been enough to outweigh concerns that a fresh wave of hurricanes could hit American oil installations.

Crude oil stockpiles in the United States fell 7.1 million barrels last week to their lowest in eight months, according to the Energy Information Administration. Analysts had expected a fall of 2.4 million barrels.

Let's see. Health care costs continue to rise at a rate nearly 4 times greater than wages have risen since 2000. Milk prices are also way up, costing more per gallon than gasoline. Income inequality between the rich and everyone else is the highest it's been since the Depression era.

We are in a severe credit crunch thanks in large part to Republican led de-regulation of financial institutions. And after one of the worst economic recoveries in terms of generating jobs and wage growth in US history, economists are finally starting to use the R word to describe the meltdown of the US economy, led by the free fall in the housing market and the mortgage crisis.

I guess we need to cut more of Paris Hilton's and Bill Gates' taxes, eh? Obviously we haven't done enough in that regard. Not to worry though. I'm sure President Bush will find a way to blame all this on the Clintons.

I would also add that the average American owes 9 grand in credit card and the price of a college education continues to sky rocket higher.

The recent student loan scandal unmasked the scam of university officials and their preferred lenders being far more interested in maximizing their own profit margins to the point of gouging families then honestly assisting young people with their higher educational needs.

We should be bending over backwards to help out our youth in every way fathomable become smarter and more trained to excel in an uber competitive global economy.

Instead, we let credit card companies issue these naive and mostly unemployed young adults huge lines of credit and then saddle them with huge college loans after they graduate. Here is a good personal article about the struggles post graduates face paying back their student loans.
The Project on Student Debt has these great policy recommendations for Congress.
Here are our four top priorities for Congress:

1. Ensure that borrowers with federal loans have fair and manageable payments;
2. Rein in private student loans;
3. Restore integrity to financial aid counseling; and
4. Increase access to need-based aid.

Booman Tribune and 80 dollar Oil
College Loan Scandal
Steep Student Loan Debt
Project Student Loan

Mac Gs World