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Plundered and corrupted for 200 years, Haiti was doomed to end in anarchy | Kenan Malik
Successive foreign governments plunged it into unpayable debt and left its citizens in penury
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Debt by Degrees
New data from the U.S. Department of Education shows in unprecedented detail how much federal student loan debt college students from low-income families are being saddled with. Use this interactive database to search among 6,000 schools in the U.S. to see how much they support their poorest students financially.
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The Labor of Sound in a World of Debt
Now, even less than in decades and centuries past, it cannot be denied that sound and music are deeply embedded in economic and material networks of exponentially increasing complexity. Sound and music are not abstract concerns, floating free from a politically charged context of labor, power and society, and neither are the messages and joys they bring. It is dependent on, determined by, and reflective of the work that made it and the world into which it is born.
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Class of 2015 has the most student debt in U.S. history
As college graduates begin to enter the real world this month, they can take cold comfort in the fact that just like the last several classes before them, they’ll have the most student debt in history. The class of 2015 will each graduate with $35,051 in student debt on average, according to an analysis from Mark Kantrowitz, the publisher of Edvisors.com, a website that provides information to parents and students about college costs...
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Embarrassed Americans underreport credit card debt by $415 billion
It’s not uncommon to fudge some of life’s most sensitive numbers, such as age or weight. But according to a NerdWallet study, consumers aren’t just fibbing a little when it comes to their credit card balances. In fact, government data show them reporting a total of $415 billion less than they actually owe. As of December 2013, lenders reported about $683 billion in outstanding credit card debt, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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More Than 40% of Student Borrowers Aren’t Making Payments
More than 40% of Americans who borrowed from the government’s main student-loan program aren’t making payments or are behind on more than $200 billion owed, raising worries that millions of them may never repay. The new figures represent the fallout of a decadelong borrowing boom as record numbers of students enrolled in trade schools, universities and graduate schools. While most have since left school and joined the...
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How Technology Helps Creditors Control Debtors
From software that records your every keystroke, to GPS tracking, to ignition kill switches—lenders have more power over their customers than ever.
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U.S. to Forgive at Least $108 Billion in Student Debt in Coming Years
The federal government is on track to forgive at least $108 billion in student debt in coming years, according to a report that for the first time projects the full cost of plans that tie borrowers’ payments to their earnings. The report, to be released on Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office, shows the Obama administration’s main strategy for helping student-loan borrowers is proving far more costly than previously thought. The report also presents a scathing review of the Education Department’s...
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Promises, Promises: A History of Debt
Anthropologist David Graeber explores the ways debt has shaped society over 5,000 years. [Audio, region-free]
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Stanford historian uncovers a grim correlation between violence and inequality over the millennia
Professor Walter Scheidel examines the history of peace and economic inequality over the past 10,000 years.
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Student loan debt up for private sale
The government has started the process of selling more student loan debt to the private financial sector. It has announced that loans made to students in England between 2002 and 2006 will be put up for sale - to be followed by other pre-2012 loans - with the aim of raising £12bn. Universities Minister Jo Johnson said the sale would have "no impact on people with student loans".
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Survey shows half of college students think student loans will be forgiven
A new survey highlights overwhelming misconceptions current U.S. college students have about their student loans, including the fact that they will actually have to pay them back. Americans owe nearly $1.3 trillion dollars in student loan debt, spread out among a 44.2 million borrowers. According to Student Loan Hero, the average Class of 2016 gradate has $37,172 dollars in student loan debt. That number is up six-percent from last year. The student loan delinquency rate is 11-percent.
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Millennials have an average student debt of $41,286.60
A survey conducted online in February by research agency TNS found that 59 percent of millennials polled have “no idea” when they will be able to pay back their student debt. The survey found millennials, defined as those between the ages of 18 and 35, have an average student debt of $41,286.60. That’s significantly higher than the national average amount of debt for college graduates, which the Department of Education determined is $29,400.
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Home Foreclosure Rates are Hitting Record Lows in the U.S.
Foreclosure rates have dropped by nearly 85% from their 2009 high in the United States. Data released by the Federal Reserve reveals that there were only about 85,000 foreclosures throughout the country during the last quarter of 2016. To put that in perspective, there were around 550,000 foreclosures during the first quarter of 2009.
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A record 107 million Americans have car loans
Americans went on a massive shopping spree for cars and trucks in recent years. Many paid for their vehicles by taking out a loan. A record 107 million Americans have auto loan debt, according to data released this week by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That's about 43% of the entire adult population in the US. It's an eye popping number. Auto loans have been growing rapidly.
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Americans Are Paying $38 to Collect $1 of Student Debt
Student loan defaults are a bonanza for the debt collection industry.
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400,000 were promised student loan forgiveness. Now they are panicking
More than 400,000 student loan borrowers may have placed their faith in a government program with an uncertain future. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program promises to cancel any remaining student debt for those who work for the government or nonprofits if they have been making on-time payments for 10 years. Many teachers, public defenders, Peace Corps workers, and law enforcement officers fit the qualifications.
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$5bn in US student debt could be wiped off because of lost paperwork
Tens of thousands of people who took out private loans to pay for college in the US but have not been able to keep up payments may get their debts wiped away because critical paperwork is missing. The troubled loans, which total at least $5 billion, are at the centre of a protracted legal dispute between the student borrowers and a group of creditors who have aggressively pursued them in court after they fell behind on payments.
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U.S. Credit-Card Debt Surpasses Record Set at Brink of Crisis
U.S. consumer credit-card debt just passed an ominous milestone, beating a record set just before the global financial system almost collapsed in 2008. Outstanding card loans reached $1.02 trillion in June, data from the Federal Reserve show, as lenders including Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. compete to sign up cardholders who may carry balances -- a relatively lucrative business in a prolonged period of low interest rates.
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More seniors are taking loans against their homes — and it’s costing them
As she was getting on in years and her resources dwindled, Virginia Rayford took out a special kind of mortgage in 2008 that she hoped would help her stay in her three-bedroom Washington rowhouse for the rest of her life. Rayford, 92, took advantage of a federally insured loan called a reverse mortgage that allows cash-strapped seniors to borrow against the equity in their houses that has built up over decades.
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