Financial Warning: "SLABS"

[Replay]

These are student loan asset backed securities. Somehow Wall Street has decided that - because student loan debt is in most cases not dischargeable by bankruptcy - the vast majority of student loan debt qualifies to be rated as AAA.

http://www.salon.com/2015/03/30/wall_st ... ncial_aid/
http://www.businessinsider.com/startups ... ans-2015-6

This is quite clearly profiteering, heartless, and instane - the idea that penniless students qualify as AAA in any circumstance is quite clearly as insane as the notion that caused the subprime crisis - namely, that all home loans were AAA because home prices had (until 2008) never seriously collapsed, even those to penniless borrowers. It exacts a terrible human cost - one may read about the cost to our generation here; many defrauded students, finding out that student loan debt never discharges and even follows one through personal bankrupcty, have already killed themselves:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/c-cryn-jo ... 38972.html

These are apparently not new securities; but there is suddenly a new rash of startups promising them. Any of you with children of school age are possibly going to get bombarded with a rash of student loan offers from private entities. I would literally almost recommend staying away from ALL student loans until this ends in tears and a Congressional investigation; I don't see any way that it can't.

[Replay]

At MINIMUM, ask about any student loan.

My personal recommendation is that if it is part of a SLAB, it should not be purchased under any circumstances - or you will find out that the usual rash of "securitized" problems apply - namely, that your loan may be owned by as many as ten corporations, it will become impossible to service, you will be assessed for fees that may be impossible to trace.

Calling for a Congressional investigation of SLABS securities now might save us all a lot of grief and an expensive bailout later as a nation.