Key inflation indicator surges 18% in 2024. Fed admits it is powerless to help?

Photo above - no, you CAN'T use the public space in front of city hall. Tent squatters have called dibs.

It was AMAZING that the Fed decided inflation was licked 2 months ago. Just before the election. They began cutting rates. The stock market soared.

That was yesterday. This month, 30 days after Kamala lost, the Fed has again turned bearish. Not so many rate cuts coming ahead. Inflation probably not licked. The markets crashed on cue.

Housing is still unaffordable. Homelessness up 18%. See link below.

People who took “economics 101”, or simply skimmed the pamphlet “economics for dummies” may already be already aware home building doesn't take off when interest rates get jacked up by government agencies. All rate hikes do is convince people who already HAVE an affordable mortgage is to hang onto their home, and not move. Who in their right mind would jump out of a 3% mortgage into a 7.5% mortgage?

Okay, so homelessness is up. Home construction is down. This was President Bidens big opportunity, as he prepares to leave office under a cloud called Bidenomics. The president COULD have issued an executive order to help housing construction. To sweep away red tape, pointless zoning restrictions, and layers of fees and permits. But clearly the lame duck president has higher priorities. Forgiving more student loans. Because those folks actually vote. The homeless? Not so much into voting. Spare change is top of mind. I’m just pointing out the obvious here.

Last week’s loan forgiveness was cleverly targeted to fall into the laps of 55,000 federal employees. Because, you know . . . the government takes care of its own first. The December giveaway was $4 billion. Someone who doesn't even have $4,000, let alone $4 billion, will now start singing and dancing and clapping. “$4 billion is a drop in the bucket of federal spending. You can’t end homelessness with that."

No, you can't. But it could have purchased 40,000 mobile homes. Or constructed 20,000 apartments. That wouldn’t have fixed everything, certainly. But it would have made more sense that sending government checks to people already sleeping indoors, with heat and electricity.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

[i]US homelessness up 18% as affordable housing remains out of reach for many people

Biden-Harris Administration Approves Additional $4.28 Billion in Student Debt Relief for Nearly 55,000 Public Service Workers | U.S. Department of Education
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Onestarlitnight

They keep throwing money at student loans to buy votes but it doesn’t solve the problem which is high interest rates and penalties.
Student loans average around 100 billion dollars annually with current debt at well over a trillion dollars!
Forgiveness of some of that debt doesn’t help the borrowers who will face the same challenges five, ten or twenty years from now unless we change the system!!

We need to make all student loans federal, recognizing the need for an educated populous! And these loans need to be dischargable in bankruptcy with conditions!

And NO CO-SIGNERS!! Parents shouldn’t have to take responsibility for the debt of their ADULT children PERIOD!!

But the loans need to be structured in a way that makes sense!!
Cap interest rates at the level of annual inflation rates plus half a percentage point, place a HARD CAP on interest at a level equal to one and a half times the original loan amount! Including penalties! That way the loan amount will stop increasing if the borrower has trouble paying it down!!

Next, ELIMINATE current loan balances where the debt holder has already paid the full amount of the principal MINUS penalties and interest and where the debt has been in existence for more than ten years. Next freeze or reduce current loan balances to a level equivalent to the values laid out in the new program less any payments already made.

Fix the problem! Don’t just pass it down to the next generation of taxpayers

LeopoldBloom · M

@Onestarlitnight In the old days (when I went to college), state schools were funded by the...state for the most part. I put myself through UCLA working part-time. You can't do that today unless your part-time job is hedge fund manager.

Onestarlitnight

@LeopoldBloom
My sister put herself through community college while working as a waitress!! No student loans at all

independentone · M

@LeopoldBloom Weren't those great times, I went to Long Beach State, and it was 75 bucks a semester.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@Onestarlitnight i'm not sure what making "all student loans federal" is supposed to solve.

would america be a better place if all mortgages were provided by the government?

Onestarlitnight

@SusanInFlorida
It would remove for profit financing and provide a single regulatory framework for student loans. The government controls the majority of the student loan market right now so this is only a minor change,
As far as mortgage loans, sure, make them all federal loans with a tiered rate schedule and ban the trading of mortgage backed derivatives in all forms.
This is probably where we’re heading anyway, the system is broken and it’s not going to work anymore.