4 ms·

It's odd that they don't mention the reason Corinthian is shutting down so many colleges - http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/07/08/329550897/the-collapse-of-cori

by jobu 12y ago

It's odd that they don't mention the reason Corinthian is shutting down so many colleges - http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/07/08/329550897/the-collapse-of-corinthian-colleges http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/07/08/329550897/the-collaps... A relative of mine works there and said they were about to be sued by the Department of Education over fraud in their student loan department. The settlement forced the company to sell or close all of it's colleges and no senior management or administrative staff is allowed to stay with any of the colleges. It seems pretty clear that Corinthian did some bad things, and it's likely the clause the article mentions in federal loans might give _some_ students an way out of debt: “In some cases, you may assert, as a defense against collection of your loan, that the school did something wrong or failed to do something that it should have done.” IANAL, but I think it's pretty unlikely the government would let all of the students off the hook. (For a billion dollars!)

jessaustin 12y ago
...pretty unlikely... Eh, it's not "real" money. Students will have debts forgiven when it's politically expedient to do so.
- crazy1van 12y ago
  > Eh, it's not "real" money Why not? It was real to the tax payers who paid it to the government and real to the Corinthian employees who were paid by the school and it will be real to the students as they struggle to pay it back over many years.
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    Because the Fed can add and remove dollars from the economy at will. See: Quantitive Easing with mortgage-backed bonds.
    - beagle3 12y ago
      Is any money real money, by that logic?
      - toomuchtodo 12y ago
        Technically no. Money is only real if 2 or more people believe it to be so. Think about it. We exchange dollars, euros, bits, whatever all day long. Do you ever stop to think, "Why does this hold any value to me?" Its because someone else will accept it in exchange for goods or services. The Onion, as always, captures this perfectly: http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-economy-grinds-to-halt-as-nation-realizes-money,2912/ http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-economy-grinds-to-halt-a...
        beagle3 12y ago
        Totally agree with you. But that makes grand-grand-grand parent comment "it's not real money" meaningless.
      - innguest 12y ago
        Ok, so we have this common ground of thinking money isn't too real if it can be printed at will by central bankers. That's good. Now ask yourself: what do central banks hoard? Whatever they hoard must be, at the very least, a more "real" kind of money than the money they print. Do they hoard diamonds? No. Do they hoard platinum? No. Do they hoard fine art? No. Do they hoard expensive wine? No. What do they hoard? Gold. And why do they hoard gold while publicly stating it's a useless and worthless metal? "Tradition", according to Ben Bernanke. So if you believe our rulers, you can sleep sound in knowing nothing is real money, and the worthless stuff central banks hoard, they're doing it just because it's tradition. All this work of moving this stuff around the globe in armored planes and escorted ships, it's all for tradition, you see.
        toomuchtodo 12y ago
        Does gold truly have that much worth as a value store? Its not a terribly great metal, and I can't see myself buying food with gold anymore than I can see myself using dollars if the economy collapses. In a nod to Accelerando (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando), the only value store I could see being useful in the future is perhaps reputation.
  - jeffdavis 12y ago
    If something is "real", you can't have less than zero. (For some definitions of " real".) Right now, the consequences of forgiving a billion dollars of student debt are immeasurable. It's a small amount to spread over so many people, and ultra easy/cheap borrowing by the federal government can delay the consequences for a long time.
    - jessaustin 12y ago
      This is really all I meant. Everybody wants to get all philosophical, when I was only referring to how our political system works.
simonh 12y ago
I don't think it's up to 'the government', it's up to the courts. It seems pretty clear to me that the school should have educated the students, and didn't. Hopefully the courts will see it that way as well. Yes, I know that means the taxpayer footing the bill. The government was responsible for accrediting, regulating and auditing the colleges. The government, and collectively the people, are responsible for any failures in that duty and any individual citizens harmed as a result deserve compensation. Note I'm not a US citizen, so my comments are meant in general.

by jobu 12y ago

jessaustin 12y ago

...pretty unlikely... Eh, it's not "real" money. Students will have debts forgiven when it's politically expedient to do so.

crazy1van 12y ago
> Eh, it's not "real" money Why not? It was real to the tax payers who paid it to the government and real to the Corinthian employees who were paid by the school and it will be real to the students as they struggle to pay it back over many years.
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  Because the Fed can add and remove dollars from the economy at will. See: Quantitive Easing with mortgage-backed bonds.
  - beagle3 12y ago
    Is any money real money, by that logic?
    - toomuchtodo 12y ago
      Technically no. Money is only real if 2 or more people believe it to be so. Think about it. We exchange dollars, euros, bits, whatever all day long. Do you ever stop to think, "Why does this hold any value to me?" Its because someone else will accept it in exchange for goods or services. The Onion, as always, captures this perfectly: http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-economy-grinds-to-halt-as-nation-realizes-money,2912/ http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-economy-grinds-to-halt-a...
      - beagle3 12y ago
        Totally agree with you. But that makes grand-grand-grand parent comment "it's not real money" meaningless.
    - innguest 12y ago
      Ok, so we have this common ground of thinking money isn't too real if it can be printed at will by central bankers. That's good. Now ask yourself: what do central banks hoard? Whatever they hoard must be, at the very least, a more "real" kind of money than the money they print. Do they hoard diamonds? No. Do they hoard platinum? No. Do they hoard fine art? No. Do they hoard expensive wine? No. What do they hoard? Gold. And why do they hoard gold while publicly stating it's a useless and worthless metal? "Tradition", according to Ben Bernanke. So if you believe our rulers, you can sleep sound in knowing nothing is real money, and the worthless stuff central banks hoard, they're doing it just because it's tradition. All this work of moving this stuff around the globe in armored planes and escorted ships, it's all for tradition, you see.
      - toomuchtodo 12y ago
        Does gold truly have that much worth as a value store? Its not a terribly great metal, and I can't see myself buying food with gold anymore than I can see myself using dollars if the economy collapses. In a nod to Accelerando (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando), the only value store I could see being useful in the future is perhaps reputation.
- jeffdavis 12y ago
  If something is "real", you can't have less than zero. (For some definitions of " real".) Right now, the consequences of forgiving a billion dollars of student debt are immeasurable. It's a small amount to spread over so many people, and ultra easy/cheap borrowing by the federal government can delay the consequences for a long time.
  - jessaustin 12y ago
    This is really all I meant. Everybody wants to get all philosophical, when I was only referring to how our political system works.

simonh 12y ago

I don't think it's up to 'the government', it's up to the courts. It seems pretty clear to me that the school should have educated the students, and didn't. Hopefully the courts will see it that way as well. Yes, I know that means the taxpayer footing the bill. The government was responsible for accrediting, regulating and auditing the colleges. The government, and collectively the people, are responsible for any failures in that duty and any individual citizens harmed as a result deserve compensation. Note I'm not a US citizen, so my comments are meant in general.