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Student Loans Start to Go Sour…

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Well, we were all waiting for this to start and here it comes. In today’s Wall Street Journal there is a report regarding the student loan default rate increasing from 5.2% to 6.9% in the last year. As the Department of Education correctly states:

Robert Shireman, a senior adviser to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, says he expects the default rate, which reflects the early part of the recession, to continue to rise. “When people are facing a job loss, figuring out how to pay their student loan is not No. 1 on their list,” he said.

That’s right. For better or for worse, the last thing on many people’s minds at this time is their student loans. Like Mr. Shireman reports, if you’re losing your job and you’re at risk of going into default on your mortgage, then the last thing that you care about is paying back a student loan that is ten, fifteen, or twenty years old!

But you’ve got to make those payments, folks. Student loans are among the few pieces of debt that cannot be discharged in a bankruptcy filing. Further, the government can (and will) garnish your wages if you default on your student loans.

All of this gets back to a point that I’ve made a few times in the last few weeks on this blog – that one of the best ways to stimulate the economy would be to cancel some, if not all, student loan debt for existing borrowers. And this point is related to something else that I think many of us stunted by student loan debt understand that the rest of the people out there don’t get yet – namely that even with all of the stimulus plans and other money being pumped into the economy, those who have a great deal of student loan debt are not going to be able to contribute to the economic recovery.

Now, if there were only a few of us, then the effect wouldn’t be so bad. But the number of people with out of control student loans is growing and that is not a good thing for the economic recovery…

Lobbying for Smartphones in the Classroom

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You have to admire the lengths that certain industries will go through in order to make a buck during a recession – even if those lengths are laughable at best. Monday’s New York Times had a great article that talked about how the cell phone industry is funding research that proves smartphones help student perform better in the classroom.

Imagine that! The cellphone industry is publishing a report that suggests the education industry – one of the largest in the United States – should invest in smartphones for its students. Brilliant.

This reminds me of a situation that came up at my job last year. We were engaging in a contract with a lobbyist to advocate for more dollars to be spent on education facilities. One of the ideas that our boss at the time had was to generate an in-house report showing the need for more facility dollars and how our organization was well positioned to use those dollars most efficiently.

I almost jumped out of my skin.

Can you imagine being a legislator and having ABC Company come up to you and say, “We need more money for Project X. Here is a report showing the need for more money for Project X. Please note that ABC Company is the best organization to utilize extra dollars allocated to Project X.”

Talk about self-serving! Any legislator that is worth their skin would laugh off that report and – if they are really interested in whatever “Project X” happens to be – would commission an independent report. Luckily, through some arguments and some luck, my company partnered with a highly regarded university to create an independent report on the idea of more money for school facilities. It was a much better option than having us do a report in house that essentially says, “Give us money.”

Anyway, you can read the full text of the New York Times article, but trust me – it’s slightly ridiculous.

Dwight Howard Robbed In The Slam Dunk Contest!

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Even though I rarely post stuff about sports on the blog, I had to put up a quick post about how the Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard was robbed in tonight’s Slam Dunk contest. The Slam Dunk contest is a part of the NBA’s All-Star weekend and it came down to the reigning champion Dwight Howard taking on Nate Robinson of the New York Knicks. Robinson’s big dunk was him “jumping over” Howard on his way to the slam, but anyone who looks at the damn tape can see that Robinson was about a foot and a half away from actually jumping over the guy. In fact, he landed somewhere on Howard’s shoulders and had to push himself off from there.

It was completely unimpressive.

Oh, and watching the Slam Dunk contest tonight reminded me of one of the reasons why I hate watching the NBA these days. The commentators are horrendous! I don’t know who was doing the play by play, but when Robinson came out in his green Knicks uniform with the green socks and the green shoes, the commentators lost all self-control and constantly made references to Lex Luthor and kryptonite. Why? Because Howard’s nickname is Superman. Get it? The other guy wore green and was competing against the guy nicknamed Superman. Get it? Green? Kryptonite? Makes Superman not super?

I was mildly amused at the references for the first thirty seconds, but after a few minutes of the mindless babbling it easily became the most annoying thing that I heard all week. Seriously – shut up. We get it. We’re not stupid.

Anyway, I don’t watch the NBA any more and I haven’t in years. But I have to admit that I was impressed by Dwight Howard’s performance tonight. Good job!

The Language You Want To Use On A Resume

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When you are preparing your resume there are many items that you need to be aware of including style, arrangement of information, how far back in time to go on extracurricular activities and awards, etc. This entry, however, only deals with the language that you should be using in your resume to describe your work history. For efficiency’s sake, you may want to have your resume next to you while you’re reading through this quick guide.

Example #1: Spent time reviewing applicants and deciding whether or not they would fit in with the company’s mission statement

In this example, someone is seeking a job in human resources and is describing one of her regular tasks at her previous company. However, remember that your potential employer does not read your resume to read a description of your previous job. Instead, they want to know about how effective you were at your previous job.

Resolution #1: Hired 14 staff members over a 5 year period including 3 executive level positions; managed an average of 4 employee complaints per month; designed and successfully implemented an annual department review program

The resolution tells a little bit more about what you actually did while in that position.

Example #2: Managed a loan portfolio and analyzed potential new borrowers for the company’s various loan products

Blech! All this tells the reviewer is that you went to work each day and did your job. How exciting?! Talk about what you managed at work and describe your analyzing.

Resolution #2: Manage a $60 million loan portfolio including $30 million in residential mortgages, $20 million in federal grants, and $10 million in commercial real estate; analyzed new business opportunities through cash flow statement and audited financial reviews and background credit checks on applicants

This resolution gives specifics and tells the reviewer much more about your daily work load.

Quick, pertinent details are what you’re looking for in your resume. Keep it simple, but make it count!

This post is also scheduled to appear on GradSpot.com – Your destination for life after college with all the content, tools, and services you need to ease your transition from college to the real world.

Brief Review Of The “We Are One” Concert

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Earlier today Washington DC sprung into celebration as the “We Are One” concert began the inaugural festivities for President-Elect Barack Obama. Since HBO went “free” during the show (and replays), I was able to watch the show – and, for the most part, I enjoyed it.

Bruce Springsteen did a great job of opening the show with his 2001 hit, The Rising, and Beyonce tore the house down with her rendition of America the Beautiful. I also enjoyed the Garth Brooks set with American Pie and Shout. Usher did a good job with Shakira and Herbie Hancock and I thought Josh Grobin performed like the vocal master that he has come to be.

The U2 performance, on the other hand, was marred for me by Bono’s ridiculous overselling each and every chorus. Good grief! Have you ever seen the episode of South Park called “Smug Alert!?” This is the one where some folks go around getting hybrid cars and act like their crap doesn’t stink. I think that South Park got that idea off of watching Bono. With the way this guy bops around the stage and makes love to his songs as he sings them you’d think he was single-handedly saving the world with each note! But even Bono couldn’t bring down the high spirits that were running throughout the concert.

Barack Obama’s message during the concert was a good one, too. Before the concert ended, Obama said the following:

I won’t pretend that meeting any one of these challenges will be easy. It will take more than a month or a year, and it will likely take many. Along the way there will be setbacks and false starts and days that test our fundamental resolve as a nation.

That’s right! I’m as happy as the next guy that we have a new President coming in, but I do not look at him as a cure-all for the nation’s problems. Look, people, President-Elect Obama is stepping into the Presidency at a horrendous time in our nation’s history. With two wars abroad and a shaky economy at home – we, as a country, need to roll our sleeves up and start getting to work. But heed Obama’s words above: this will not take a day, a week, a month, or even one year. We have long-term problems that require long-term solutions. I just hope that we don’t see another President destroyed by a media which is fueled by fanatics who want to see results immediately.

While the concert was inspiring I do take issue with the theme of the show being “We Are One.” Actually, let me be more specific. I don’t take issue with that theme, per se, rather I’m disappointed in anyone who is living in this country and did not believe that we were one before Obama won the election. Frankly, anyone who believed that we were a divided country or a country set apart in dozens of fractures either believes the bullshit they see on television or is completely out of touch with the people around them. All anyone ever had to do was talk to a neighbor or a coworker or a classmate to see that we all share the same problems – regardless of race, religion, gender, age, etc.

So while the concert was tremendously uplifting and a great way to kick off the inaugural festivities, I couldn’t help but being disappointed by some of the celebrities and entertainers who sounded as if they were waking up in a brand new America. Maybe Obama has given these people the hope that many of us already had from living in the best country in the history of the world. If that’s the case, then I welcome these people to the reality that we’ve all been living in. However, if they were simultaneously celebrating the arrival of one President and the departure of another, then I think it’s sad that they allowed one man to ruin their view of their nation.

Many of us grew weary of the outgoing administration; but we never stopped loving our country or believing that we were one with our countrymen. Let’s hope that those who are beginning to love their country for the first time or who are reigniting their love of the United States are not so fickle with these emotions now that we are all “one.”