{"id":37482,"date":"2017-01-13T13:05:51","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T21:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=37482"},"modified":"2017-01-13T13:05:51","modified_gmt":"2017-01-13T21:05:51","slug":"student-debt-doubles-since-2008-fake-news-spins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/student-debt-doubles-since-2008-fake-news-spins\/","title":{"rendered":"Student debt doubles since 2008…\u201dFake News\u201d spins it"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Private-student-loans\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My blog\u2019s only been around a couple years now. When I started, student debt was under a trillion dollars\u2026now it\u2019s more like $1.4 trillion dollars. Our higher education system has been transformed from a system of education and research for humanity, into a system of massive wealth transfer into the pockets of higher education administration.<\/p>\n

Months ago, ZeroHedge released a collection of charts<\/a>, based on seldom published government numbers, showing that the often published government numbers detailing the wonders of the US economy are rubbish.<\/p>\n

\"charts\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Donald Trump tweeted out these charts, implying strongly that Obama really hasn\u2019t been all that wonderful. I\u2019m no fan of Obama, and I agree the last 8 years have been bad, far worse than the general public is being told\u2026but it\u2019s not exactly Obama\u2019s fault. The 2008 banking crisis did not create the immense falsehoods in our economy, it merely exposed them. This exposure was quickly papered over with massive money creation, but the rot is still there. Sure, Obama\u2019s done nothing to fix these problems, but, nobody can fix this level of corruption without massive fallout, which hasn’t happened. All he\u2019s done is delay the inevitable outcome of decades of ostentatious fraud. To criticize Obama\u2019s failure here is as fair as criticizing someone for not saving himself from a fall because he didn\u2019t flap his arms fast enough: any other person would fail in about the same way.<\/p>\n

Anyway, a casual inspection of the graphs above (and these are more clearly represented at ZeroHedge) shows disturbing trends in the economic situation of most Americans, in ways most Americans can easily understand, without government sorcery like \u201chedonic adjustments\u201d and \u201crent allowances\u201d that give economic bonuses which apply to no actual human.<\/p>\n

It really is amazing the mainstream media\u2019s hatred for Donald Trump, leading to a bias that I thought would end, or at least slow down, after the election. Granted, Trump calling them all liars who should be ashamed of themselves<\/a> (why wasn\u2019t this in the news for weeks, I do-not-wonder), right to their faces, in person, while completely justified, probably didn\u2019t help matters.<\/p>\n

Anyway, these charts dispel the mainstream narrative of how wonderful Obama and the economy are, and have been more or less endorsed by Trump. So, of course, the mainstream media has to debunk them.<\/p>\n

Here goes, from the Washington Post:<\/p>\n

Donald Trump tweeted out 9 graphs proving that Obama failed. We fact-checked them.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

–apologies for citing a fake news site.<\/em><\/p>\n

The article preambles with the usual anti-Trump hate, and then moves on to the picture I\u2019ve indicated above. The journalist (sic) lacks the rudimentary computer expertise of how to deal with small print, and has less mathematical skill that my most remedial students, and thus struggles with reading the graphs:<\/p>\n

There are nine little graphs embedded in there, with hard-to-read axes and unclear provenance for the numbers, all of which are meant to bolster one argument: Barack Obama’s presidency has been bad.<\/em><\/p>\n

Look, for example, at the graph at upper left, “Student Loans.” It’s almost impossible to make out the labels on the horizontal axis, but it’s clear that there simply aren’t any until the graph starts to rise. Which is … a bit deceptive<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll just be focusing on the student loan graph, although the anti-Trump hit piece goes over the others with just as much acumen. The journalist (sic) does the right thing, and tries to verify the charts are accurate:<\/p>\n

So what I figured I’d do is try my best to recreate these charts with verifiable numbers,<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, keep in mind, it took me all of 30 seconds to figure out these charts came from ZeroHedge\u2026the journalist (sic) lacks even my paltry investigative skills and never even mentions ZeroHedge, and so then spends considerable time putting all the spin he can on how these charts are misleading by finding his own facts (instead of ZeroHedge, which cited its numbers from the government itself) and twisting things around.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the best the journalist (sic) could do:<\/p>\n

\"loandebtgraph\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, doing the best they can, this fake news site still shows that student loan debt has basically doubled under Obama\u2019s reign. The news article then says we shouldn\u2019t blame Obama for this\u2026perhaps so, but it\u2019s clear Obama has done nothing here to help our kids, to keep them from being screwed into a lifetime of unpayable debt. I grant there are plenty of huge problems in this country, so perhaps Obama just had other priorities\u2026but the other charts show similar inactivity by Obama.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so strange to see the media behaving like this. Donald Trump, for good or ill, just succeeded in the greatest political upset in history (at least, if you think fake news was telling the truth about all the polls). It\u2019s as bizarre as me getting into a full contact professional karate fight with 8 year old Honey Boo Boo<\/a>, and getting knocked out within 10 seconds.<\/p>\n

After such a beating, I would consider what happened. Top three explanations for my losing would be along the lines of:<\/p>\n