HUD Said to Fail in Bid to Sell $450 Million of FHA Mortgages

"The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the first time failed to sell some of the soured mortgages it’s auctioning off in the wake of the housing crisis, according to four people with knowledge of the results."

"The sales are an attempt by HUD to simultaneously stem losses at the financially troubled FHA and pursue its public mission of averting foreclosures on the underlying properties. The refusal to accept bids on some of the pools may reflect that the FHA reached its limit on the losses it was willing to realize to keep some borrowers in homes or stabilize markets."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-13/hud-said-to-fail-in-bid-to-sell-450-million-of-bad-mortgages.html

 

 

 

@BrookingsMetro: Rates of upward mobility in the U.S. now rank below those in most other advanced economies. Learn what mayors can do http://t.co/S8UxbRoNRU

The Right will never let go of their belief that we are the the only country in the world with any upward mobility whatsoever no matter how many studies show that we actually do quite poorly in that measure and have for quite a while.

 

Well, maybe that's not fair to say that about the Right... the people who actually understand business and economy will just keep telling the Right that rather than it being something they believe on their own.

 

1%er: "Ahahaha, we can just keep telling them that they're going to get rich one day just by working terrible hours for little pay. They are so screwed, but as long as we tell them they're going to make it one day (especially if they vote to reduce my taxes but not theirs) they'll keep buying it!"

Ford set for most aggressive expansion in 50 years

 

The Michigan-based automaker said Thursday it's on the brink of "the fastest and most aggressive manufacturing expansion the company has undergone in 50 years." It plans to add 5,000 new jobs in the U.S. next year, including 3,300 salaried positions.

 

The company also plans to open new factories in Brazil and China, and will introduce 23 new vehicles globally.

 

http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/12/news/companies/ford-jobs/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Ford set for most aggressive expansion in 50 years

 

The Michigan-based automaker said Thursday it's on the brink of "the fastest and most aggressive manufacturing expansion the company has undergone in 50 years." It plans to add 5,000 new jobs in the U.S. next year, including 3,300 salaried positions.

 

The company also plans to open new factories in Brazil and China, and will introduce 23 new vehicles globally.

 

http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/12/news/companies/ford-jobs/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

 

Hmmm....wonder if they decide to do something with Walton Hills, which is still (sort of) open.

^Doubt it.  That's an old Chrysler plant, right?  I don't see Ford buying it.  If there is any local impact, I would think it likely to be an expansion/re-opening at Brook Park.  That plant is only operating at a fraction of original capacity.

^Doubt it.  That's an old Chrysler plant, right?  I don't see Ford buying it.  If there is any local impact, I would think it likely to be an expansion/re-opening at Brook Park.  That plant is only operating at a fraction of original capacity.

 

No, Ford's Walton Hills stamping plant.  It almost literally touches the Northfield Park Rocksino.  Chrysler Twinsburg is almost all torn down.

 

But you're right they would likely focus on Brookpark.

I am not sure they can do this in a meaningful way without some very unpleasant side effects.

 

Reality dawns for artificial world created by Fed activism

“QE got rid of the headache, but we are hooked on the painkiller now,” says Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank. “It’s time the Fed moved away from having created an artificial world and allowed the economy to stand on its own.”

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a2f5d320-6740-11e3-a5f9-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2ny06hdeb

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was wondering why this thread has been so quiet as of late.  I suppose, at least for the purpose of the narrative being pushed in this discussion, no news is good news.....

 

U.S. growth revised higher, economy on firmer footing

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in almost two years in the third quarter, the government said on Friday as it revised its estimates of business and consumer spending higher.

 

The broad revisions hinted at some underlying strength, which could help the economy better absorb the blow from an anticipated cutback in inventory accumulation this quarter.

 

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday gave the economy a vote of confidence, announcing it would reduce its $85 billion monthly bond purchases by $10 billion starting in January.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-third-quarter-growth-raised-133145552.html

 

I was wondering why this thread has been so quiet as of late.  I suppose, at least for the purpose of the narrative being pushed in this discussion, no news is good news.....

 

 

Or that good news is no news!

I stand by my main idea, the recovery is based on, MASSIVE amounts of debt, that can't be sustained. When that bunch bowl is removed the real state of the economy will show its face once again. But, I realized there is limited value in discussing the issue while the FEDs print 1 Trillion dollars a year to make things look better than they really are. This 1 Trillion a year debt binge should tell everyone they are desperate and things are not normal.

Why there's no recovery. Public sector jobs are 3.2% below start of recovery, unlike past 3 recoveries. But I thought government didn't create jobs....

 

it's not just the public sector, come on now. 

 

our economy today is more specialized than ever before.  Without basic skills, you're not qualified to do much at all.  Even with basic skills & 2 year community college degree, you're not qualified to do much.  So comparing to previous recessions isn't apples to apples.

 

The labor participation rate is at an all time low.  Maybe that's an effect of high unemployment or maybe it's a cause...  but people are choosing not to work.  Or more importantly, they are choosing not to even actively seek work, which is why the unemployment rate is dropping...

^The cuts to the public sector, while perhaps necessary for long-term sustainability (I personally don't agree), are undoubtedly causing short-term pain beyond the raw numbers for the public sector.  You can't only agree with trickle style economics when it is convenient for the wealthy.

 

The participation rate is troubling, but not nearly as alarming as the Debbie Downers would have you believe.  There's a few points about the labor market participation rate which they won't tell you in their "reporting." 

 

First, even at 63%, it isn't that far off its high-water mark and might be simply coming more inline with a non-bubble inflated economy. 

 

Second, it is supposed to be going down with baby boomers reaching retirement age and medical innovations increasing life span.  What we are seeing is a trend that started at the turn of the century, after participation hit its high-point around 2000.  It was probably exasperated by the recession which started in 2007 and nearly caused the bottom to fall out at the end of 2008. 

 

Thidly, the workforce is skewing older and more young people are going to and staying in school after graduating high school.

^agreed.  All that.  And we have the highest rate ever of men, prime working age 25-45, not in the work force.

A lot of the public sector jobs are being privatized.  That's having an impact there.  There's also a degree of culture shock for some of the public sector people making the transition.  Efficiency is all too often not valued in the public sector, it even has negative value culturally and sometimes institutionally.

 

Other than that, very good points.

 

I suspect we’re heading towards a four day work week eventually.

 

I agree with Hts' points about the labor participation rate, and it's gottaplan's point that is the more concerning one.  But even if we addressed the shortage of men ages 25-45 (or 18-45) not in the labor force, it would not put the labor participation rate back to its bubble highs, because of the growing number of retirees (and college students, though that might well present its own problems ... see the "Peak Education" thread).

 

However, while the slightly falling labor force participation rate may be natural, organic, and largely beyond the ability of any policy decision to reverse, it nevertheless remains an economic headwind and will be counted in the official economic stats (and, to the extent that an increasing retiree population is the largest component of the decline, it also represents significant additional entitlement burdens).

 

The flip side of this is that just because someone isn't in the formal workforce doesn't mean they're economic deadweight, and certainly not social deadweight.  When a grandparent babysits the children and saves the parent childcare for that particular day, roughly equivalent real value is produced even if it doesn't go into official economic stats--a lot of two-income households with children rely on that kind of family support (particularly in fields with high time demands, like law).  Even with respect to the boomerang generation, if someone outside the labor force ends up giving free room and board to their 25-year-old son, real value is produced even if it means less measured GDP because the kid doesn't pay rent to a landlord somewhere.  This is kind of half-social, half-economic capital (or perhaps one could call it social capital with economic power).  I've sometimes wondered whether the growth in DIY home improvement work since the dawn of streaming video has been enough to cause a needle-moving level of off-the-stat-sheet wealth creation; there are treasure troves of information out there, but I also often get the sense that ten times as many people watch such DIY materials as actually use them.  Bottom line: The 63% labor force participation rate is not the whole picture.  The whole picture would include a breakdown of what the other 37% of the population is actually doing.  To the extent that those people are doing productive things, whether as stay-at-home spouses, active retirees, or whatever, their activities add to societal wealth even if they don't show up in the formal economic statistics--which of course will make the formal economic statistics look grimmer than reality.

I suppose my wife counts as part of that dropping participation rate.  After she had our second child, she decided she wanted to stay home.  More stay at home parents is not a bad thing IMHO, even if it does mean less 'workers' in the labor market and less demand for day care services, which also drops the participation rate.

 

On the whole, I agree that it is a headwind.  But there are also some good angles to it.  Like most debated issues in our society, it is more complex than those 'moderating' the debates would have us believe.

On the whole, I agree that it is a headwind.  But there are also some good angles to it.  Like most debated issues in our society, it is more complex than those 'moderating' the debates would have us believe.

 

Truth on all counts.

 

And as long as the people leaving aren't actually resting on their hands (or worse, leaving the workforce for socially destructive reasons like going to jail), it's only a "headwind" in terms of the official stats.  The official stats lie somewhere on the spectrum between best estimates, ballpark guesses, drunken bloviations by intoxicated bureaucrats, and proclamations by Baghdad Bob.

A lot of the public sector jobs are being privatized.  That's having an impact there.  There's also a degree of culture shock for some of the public sector people making the transition.  Efficiency is all too often not valued in the public sector, it even has negative value culturally and sometimes institutionally.

 

Other than that, very good points.

 

I suspect we’re heading towards a four day work week eventually.

 

 

I've never been able to notice the difference in workload or efficiency between the private and public sector jobs I've worked. Same amount of uptimes and downtimes. Time to lean, time to clean.

 

I don't think any forum users here think like this, but I think everyone should be aware that the flip side of the "government workers are lazy and inefficient" stuff comes out of the fact that Uncle Sam employs a lot of minorities, people with cultural and arts degrees, previously low-income individuals, overweight women, urban dwellers... Democrats! Like the only people on earth that deserve jobs (and to eat at all) are people who studied engineering, healthcare, business (not economics, though) or those in the skilled trades. Everybody else is only good as janitors or manual laborers. And that's bullshit.

it's not just the public sector, come on now. 

 

our economy today is more specialized than ever before.  Without basic skills, you're not qualified to do much at all.  Even with basic skills & 2 year community college degree, you're not qualified to do much.  So comparing to previous recessions isn't apples to apples.

 

The labor participation rate is at an all time low.  Maybe that's an effect of high unemployment or maybe it's a cause...  but people are choosing not to work.  Or more importantly, they are choosing not to even actively seek work, which is why the unemployment rate is dropping...

 

I can't see how low labor participation rate would cause high unemployment.  And while low labor participation rate may be troubling, I don't see how or even why we would take measures to fix it until we are in a labor shortage, not surplus.

X, it wouldn't.  That's one of the reasons the headline unemployment rate is falling.  People are moving from unemployed status to non-participating status.  The question is under what circumstances.  To the extent that that number represents people who would still want to be in the workforce but simply cannot find work, that's a serious social and economic stress point.  The issue is how much of the picture really does follow that narrative and how much of the picture of falling labor participation flows from other factors that aren't as intrinsically pernicious even if they lower the official stats.

Wages are so low and hours so ridiculous (way too much night and weekend work) that it's not worth it for a lot of people to even go in. Take home $58 a day for four days but have to drive across town at 3 in the morning Thursday through Sunday? Why bother?

If this is true, then the big banks have been caught manipulating/corrupting just about everything. Libor, cartel money, housing stock, etc.

 

Metals, Currency Rigging Is Worse Than Libor, Bafin Says

"Germany’s top financial regulator said possible manipulation of currency rates and prices for precious metals is worse than the Libor-rigging scandal, which has already led to fines of about $6 billion.

The allegations about the currency and precious metals markets are “particularly serious because such reference values are based -- unlike Libor and Euribor -- typically on transactions in liquid markets and not on estimates of the banks,” Elke Koenig, the president of Bonn-based Bafin, said in a speech in Frankfurt yesterday.

Koenig is the first global finance regulator to comment publicly on the investigations as probes into the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, expand into other benchmarks."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-16/metals-currency-rigging-worse-than-libor-bafin-s-koenig-says.html

 

Why there's no recovery. Public sector jobs are 3.2% below start of recovery, unlike past 3 recoveries. But I thought government didn't create jobs....

 

Usually, the government spends more at the beginning of a recession as was done in 2009 with the stimulus bill that funded the Innerbelt Bridge. That spending makes up for the loss of demand in the private sector of the economy.  This time, the austerity types prevailed. States like Ohio laid off teachers and public employees and worsened the recession.  The Tories prevailed in the UK and enacted an austerity program so severe that it put their country back into a recession.

 

So, this plot demonstrates the bad policy decision that has worsened the recession. Gov. Kasich and the teapartiers he arrived with were "enthusiastic" budget cutters and Ohio has a higher unemployment rate to show for it.

 

The Ohio GOPs cut income taxes when revenues rebounded and the budget crisis was not as extreme as they predicted. That tax cut certainly has not launched Ohio into economic prosperity. It was a just a bonus for wealthy Ohioans with incomes in the high six figures.

The Deficit Is Vanishing. America Isn't As Broke As You May Think.

 

You can't turn on the TV without hearing of the United States' burgeoning deficit. But while the deficit may be big in absolute terms, looking at it in relative terms reveals that the United States isn't doing as bad as some may want you to believe.

 

The cold, hard numbers

In calendar year 2009, at the depth of the recession, the deficit was a massive, $1.47 trillion. At the time, it was more than 10% of gross domestic product -- all goods and services produced within the nation's borders.

 

The United States' fiscal condition has since improved remarkably. Now, just four years later, the American deficit stands at $560.5 billion for the 2013 calendar year, nearly one-third of the deficit recorded one presidential election ago.

 

*  *  *  *  *

 

In the last three calendar months of 2013, the U.S. deficit plunged to just $174 billion, down from $293 billion in 2012.

 

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/01/19/the-deficit-is-vanishing-america-isnt-as-broke-as.aspx

Less war, less deficit? No way! Hopefully we get a real patriot next time around that knows how to throw money away while claiming to be fiscally conservative.

It's still substantially larger than it was even in 2008 under Bush ($458 billion), to say nothing of the bubble years from 2005-2007 (it was down to $161 billion in 2007).  Of course, those were bubble years.  Therefore, those would only be apt comparisons if we were also in another bubble now.

 

But we might be.

 

I hope we're not, but considering the fantastic growth in the stock market over the past year or two set against the substantially less rosy Main Street economic fundamentals, and you have to at least give the evidence of a bubble some consideration.  I'm not convinced that we're in one (in fact, I still have the vast majority of my non-house net worth in equities), but it's enough to make me nervous.

^Well just a minute there, Professor.  You're assuming Obama 'owns' the FY2009 deficit and Bush is free of blame.  That's BS which has been rebuked over and over again.  Fiscal years for government budgets start in October BTW.  That record high deficit was for FY2009 (i.e. Oct. 2008-Sept. 2009).  Obama was sworn into office in late January 2009 in the midst of one of the greatest drops in tax revenue the federal government had ever encountered

 

The chart is based on the assumption that the current administration should be blamed for the 2009 fiscal year. While this makes sense to a casual observer, it is largely untrue. The 2009  fiscal year began October 1, 2008, nearly four months before Obama took office. The budget for the entire fiscal year was largely set in place while Bush was in the White House.

 

http://www.cato.org/blog/dont-blame-obama-bushs-2009-deficit

 

 

He certainly can't avoid complete ownership of it.  The bank bailouts were mostly done under Bush, but the stimulus was under Obama (February 2009).  But yes, I know that federal fiscal years start in October, so FY09 started while Bush was still in office and much of the spending that took place in FY09 would have been set in place prior to Obama taking office.  Obama upped the ante and doubled down on Bush's profligate spending, though.  If he'd had any interest in pursuing a non-Keynesian response to the Great Recession, he could have.

What are you saying Gramarye? He should have watch the country lose 800k a month or do something to reverse it which he did?

I was simply correcting the statement that Bush's last budget year was $458.  Oh yeah.... while we're at it, let's not forget about this little...... ummmmm..... sidenote to Bush's budgets:

 

The most striking fact about the cost of the war in Iraq has been the extent to which it has been kept "off the books" of the government's ledgers and hidden from the American people. This was done by design.

*  *  *  *  *

The most obvious way in which the true cost of this war was kept hidden was with the use of supplemental appropriations to fund the occupation. By one estimate, 70% of the costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2003 and 2008 were funded with supplemental or emergency appropriations approved outside the Pentagon's annual budget. These appropriations allowed the Bush administration to shield the Pentagon's budget from the cuts otherwise needed to finance the war, to keep the Pentagon's pet programs intact and to escape the scrutiny that Congress gives to its normal annual regular appropriations.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/11/us-public-defrauded-hidden-cost-iraq-war

 

 

I don't recall denying that.  You may be confusing me with a Republican.  That was definitely underhanded.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific Northwest.........

 

Intel pledges $100 billion investment in Washington County

Created on Monday, 11 August 2014 15:14 | Written by Kendra Hogue | Print

 

Oregon's largest for-profit employer negotiates new SIP deal with county, city of Hillsboro

 

Representatives of Intel Corp., Washington County and the city of Hillsboro said Monday that they have reached a proposed agreement for the microchip giant to invest $100 billion in its Portland-area plants and facilities during the next 30 years.

 

“That’s billion with a 'B,' ” said Washington County Commissioner Roy Rogers. “It’s a staggering number.”

 

The agreement is considered a job-retention program and the $100 billion represents new money that Intel expects to invest in research, development and manufacturing on its Washington County campuses.

 

“There are 17,500 currently employed at Intel and three jobs created for every Intel job,” said Rogers, referring to a recent study by ECONorthwest, a private economic consulting firm.

 

READ MORE AT:

http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/229805-93488-intel-pledges-100-billion-investment-in-washington-county?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Wages in U.S. down 23 percent since 2008, report shows

By Cliff Pinckard, Northeast Ohio Media Group

on August 12, 2014 at 2:29 AM

 

While 8.7 million jobs have been regained since the 2008 recession, they are paying much less, by an average of 23 percent, according to a report released Monday by the United States Conference of Mayors.

 

The report comes as debate continues about income inequality in the United States.

 

"While the economy is picking up steam, income inequality and wage gaps are an alarming trend that must be addressed," said Conference of Mayors President Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento, Calif., in a news release. "We cannot put our heads in the sand on these issues."

 

The annual wage in sectors where jobs were lost, particularly in manufacturing and construction, during the recession was $61,637, but the average wage of new jobs through the second quarter of 2014 is $47,131, the report shows.

 

READ MORE AT:

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2014/08/wages_in_us_down_23_percent_si.html

^That headline is ridiculously misleading.

^That headline is ridiculously misleading.

It should say "New-job wages down 23%"

^That headline is ridiculously misleading.

It should say "New-job wages down 23%"

 

Does it even say that?  It says the *annual* wage in the first number and the *average* (starting) wage in the second.  I can't get the apples to line up here even with oranges.  This is more like apples and antiprotons.

American standard of living poised to plummet, report says

By Olivera Perkins, The Plain Dealer

on August 15, 2014 at 7:30 AM, updated August 15, 2014 at 7:31 AM

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio - The American Dream, rooted in the belief that each generation will do better than the last, is threatened with devolving into a pipe dream, according to the findings of a recent report.

 

The standard of living in the United States is in danger of declining by 9 percent by 2030, back to what it was in 2000, says the report by Accenture, the global consulting company. Ohio is expected to do a little better, declining only by 7.8 percent.

 

For many, returning to 2000 may sound pretty good. It was several years before the Great Recession. Wages, for the most part, were still rising across the board. The proliferation of lower-wage jobs, a post-recession trend, was years in the future. But when one looks at gross domestic product, or the total value of goods produced and services rendered in the U.S. during a year, things have gotten better, said Peter Hutchinson, the Accenture managing director of public service strategy, who authored the report.

 

READ MORE AT:

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2014/08/american_standard_of_living_po.html#incart_river

As the article states, companies won't train anybody. You better already work there (or do the same job for a direct competitor) or you can't work there.

We are finally seeing the outcome when you let stock price dictate every component of your corporate strategy.   

German recession fears mount as exports plunge

 

I guess if your trading partners are broke and in austerity mode, eventually it catches up with you.  Germany has been lending money to other European countries for decades so they could buy German goods.  Many of those countries have reduced their borrowing and/or taken those borrowed Euros and paid down debt instead of buying German goods.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/german-exports-plunge-largest-amount-065043037.html

 

 

Hey, CincyDad. Been a while since I've seen you post. Hope you're doing well.

Been a while since this thread was active.  What happened to the devastating collapse which was imminent in 2009....... I mean, 2010....... or was it 2011?....... No, it was 2012...... False again, it was definitely going to happen in 2013....... what?  We are still here?  Nooooooooooooo!

The stock market's doing fine since it is the only place to invest and see actual returns anymore.

"Hey, CincyDad. Been a while since I've seen you post. Hope you're doing well."

 

Doing just fine, thank you.  Probably been over a year since I last posted.  Changed jobs in the interim, but still in Cincy area.

 

Devestating collapse that was imminent?  They call it the Great Recession, don't they?  Most every indicator, except the the Fed-manipulated stock market, is still lower than when RageRunner started the original thread back in early 2008.

 

I don't think we ever predicted the end of the world back then... just a major economic downturn caused by a financial cycle crises, not a normal business cycle down-turn.  One of them there financial cycles (caused by too much borrowing) happens every 80 or so years.  I think RageRunner and I were correct in our arguements before the down-turn actually started.

 

I wonder what ever happened to Michael?  Those were some good debates we had back in the beginning.  Being in Real Estate sales, he was naturally an optomist at every turn of the page.  He was handling the downtown/Gateway part of town, where the public sector was pooring in tons of money, and therefore saw no reason for concern.  In his case, it was probably justified.  Gateway area RE was being supported by government money just like the Stock Market is being supported by Fed easy-money policy, so neither is indicative of free-market reality. 

 

I just stopped by to see if the thread was still going, and if any of the old-timers were still around.  I'll try to check in some-what regularly for awhile and see how the debate goes.

 

 

Well, I can't say I remember your posts CincyDad.  I was not referring to the collapse compared to 2008 levels.  I was referring to the imminent and dangerous collapse which was supposed to occur AFTER the recession's peak.  Not a failure to recover.  Not sluggish growth.  A devastating collapse that would change life as we know it...... at least that's what some were pining for.

 

Personally, I know very little about economics, but I consider myself pretty good at recognizing false hysteria.  As of now, I was right.  In a year or two or three or whenever, I may be proven wrong.  But I like where I'm sitting at present ;)

Are there as any young people just starting out on this board any more?  Five years ago there were quite a few and we discussed to some degree the effects of the recession/recovery on that generation.

 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/young-face-a-savings-deficit/ar-AA7kUSM?ocid=iehp

 

from the article... "Adults under age 35—the so-called millennial generation—currently have a savings rate of negative 2%, meaning they are burning through their assets or going into debt, according to Moody’s Analytics."

Are there as any young people just starting out on this board any more?  Five years ago there were quite a few and we discussed to some degree the effects of the recession/recovery on that generation.

 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/young-face-a-savings-deficit/ar-AA7kUSM?ocid=iehp

 

from the article... "Adults under age 35—the so-called millennial generation—currently have a savings rate of negative 2%, meaning they are burning through their assets or going into debt, according to Moody’s Analytics."

 

I'll bite. I am 26 and "started out" about 4 years ago. I graduated from Miami U with an accounting degree in '10 and it was rough getting a job when I graduated. The year my classmates and I were all supposed to be getting internships was 2008-2009. That made it tough when it was time to look for full-time work. The big firms which usually hire these grads in droves barely hired that year.

 

Eventually I found a job auditing at a smaller, far less glamourous accounting firm in the Columbus suburbs and got my CPA. Interestingly, and probably due to what happened in 2008-2010, there is now a huge shortage of auditors with around 3-5 years experience, at least in the CBus area, because I get hounded by recruiters once a week who all tell me the market is once-in-a-lifetime hot.

 

I borrowed $50k to go to Miami when it was all said and done and another $10k on a car loan. I have been agressivelly paying it off and am down to about $14k and should be done in 10 more months. Including the extra principal payments as savings, my savings rate is somewhere around 30-40%. (I am making around $55k). I have a roommate and pay about $600/month for rent in the Short North... so yes you can live in a trendy area and still save money. I've gone on modest vacations and had fun, I just don't buy a bunch of useless crap, I guess.

 

Obviously I am a bit of an outlier case as I have a financial education and a loathing for debt (loathing really is not strong enough a word for how I feel about debt),  that has driven this debt payoff. However I am not sure things are as bleak as this msn article would suggest. I imagine they are including all student loan borrowing in their calculation to get to the -2%?

 

I do feel that my student loan debt has been a blessing, as much as I hate it. It has made me really aware of my finances and motivated to overcome this hurdle. The budgeting and saving skills I have learned through paying off the debt, will benefit me for the rest of my life.

 

My friends are all over the map. I grew up in a economically diverse suburb (Mayfield) on the east side of CLE. Some kids had Doctors and Lawyers for parents while were very blue collar. I have some friends who read like the articles... they haven't moved out of Mom and Dad's houses and I'm not sure what they are going to do. I have one friend who struggled to start out at first... he got a job selling gym memberships... but he was so good at it he got promoted up the ranks and now runs a gym for $90k a year. I have another friend who, the one I worry about most, did some really stupid things. He borrowed probably around $80k-$100k for a bachelors and is working for Progressive Insurance for probably something in the $30k area... I have no idea what he is going to do. I try to counsel him but there's only so much you can do.

 

Then of course my friends from Miami are doing a bit better on average. Some went to Chicago, NY, Seattle, Colorado, etc.

 

I would say most of my friends, 4 years out of college, are doing pretty well, even if it took some of them a little bit longer to get there. Some just got on their feet while others have been on their feet and are now having kids, buying houses, etc, but everyone is doing pretty well.

I'll be 26 in January. My graduate school class (UC Architecture 2014) finished in the

Spring. Out of all the people I keep in touch with all have jobs and are currently getting situated into life outside of school. Out of those whom I am close with all are doing fine with finances even with architect salaries which are nothing to be amazed with.

 

Personally I'm incredibly fortunate that my parents paid my tuition and as such I have no student loans to pay off. Most of my peers have around 300-350/month in payments and instead I'm putting a little more than that into my 401(k) every month to get an early start saving for retirement.

 

I'm also the first of my friends to purchase a place which I did with money I made from an investment I made about 5 years ago. That has actually turned out to be amazing in two regards. I own property by Washington Park on the streetcar line and it's actually cheaper for me to own than to rent so I'm saving money in that regard. I'm also quite light on utility usage so my bills have dropped since moving out of the house I lived in for the last three years which has been nice.

 

Overall I'd say everyone I know is doing quite well balancing their lives with paying off student loans taking priority over everything else. I don't know anyone having trouble achieving that goal currently. In fact I'd say pretty much all of my friends are doing quite well for themselves even while making a pretty modest amount of money.