I remember the day Lehman Bros. went to zero. I was actually sitting in a poker room watching and we literally all sat there in disbelief. I'm a little bit more into that stuff than most (I watch CNBC, read finanacial journals sometimes, etc.) but even the guys at the table who weren't really in tune understood how big a deal it was.
So here we are 8 years later and look at the wonderful student debt bubble we have. The barrista making my coffee every morning getting paid $10.50/hour has six figures in student load debt with a degree in underwater basket weaving. We have the EXACT same things happening with student loans that we did with housing. Just like when a house was "always a good investment" so is a college degree. Regardless of cost. Politicians (and it's not party specific by ANY means) support the bubble with cheap money (or appoint fed chairs etc. that do it). This bubble hasn't burst and unlike housing people have been calling it for years! But what's the alternative? We'd have most likely had a depression worse than the Great Depression had we not poured the cheap $ in and added the liquidity.
The thing is, we're in too deep. You can't unring this bell. Think about it: 8 years is the blink of an eye really in terms of historical housing data. Only 8 years ago it was the apocalypse with housing (sure it was regional to a degree but it affected the entire economy and no markets were "good" with housing, just "less awful" than others). Where I live now (the county I live in) there's FORTY buyers looking for every ONE seller. I bought my house last August. I could literally sell it for 15-20% more than I bought it for and it's only been mine for 14 months. It would be considered "high end" I guess. 3500 square feet, 6 years old, nice finishes and all that stuff. And while lending practices are at least more reasonable now, people still wouldn't hesitate to spend a ton of $ on my house or a zillion others like it. Or borrow $100k for college to get a degree that can't even get them a decent paying job in the area they graduated in. Sure, it's actually talked about now as an issue so we won't get another movie with Christian Bale to help the general public understand credit default swaps but the trillion dollar+ debt is there and it's not going anywhere when the default rates keep climbing on student loans. It's not just us either. Look at Europe. Not necessarily student loan debt there but the entitlement society gives them all sorts of their own fun problems.
So that was a long rant about bubbles but the reality is neither Gary Johnson nor any other politician can pull us out of the bubble cycle. Trump pointing it out means nothing. He can't really do anything about it either (and he may not even want to even if he could). Hillary either. I'm not voting for either of them or Johnson, but that's just me and has nothing to do with economic bubbles. I'll write in someone I think would make a better prez and waste my vote. At least I'll be able to sleep at night.
*I did make a small bet on not Hillary at +200. I'm going to lose that bet. I don't really give a F. America is losing this November regardless of who wins. I just want to point out that I did in fact place a wager on this election, thus earning my right to post this long winded crap above LOL.
