The Great Education Scam, continued

We've written before about the education scam, wherein students are conned by colleges and the government into taking on a lifetime of debt for a vastly overpriced education.

Now Anonymous sends this story:

Drake College of Business, a for-profit higher-education company based in New Jersey, suspended its recruiting of students from homeless shelters while accreditors scrutinize the practice.

Closely held Drake, which trains medical and dental assistants, relied on taxpayers for 87% of revenue in 2007 through federal financial aid programs. Almost 5% of the student body at its Newark, N.J., branch is homeless, said Jean Aoun, director of admissions and student services. In 2008, Drake began offering a $350 biweekly stipend to students who showed up for 80% of classes and got C's for their work, Bloomberg Businessweek reported last week.

Just as with the subprime house lending, easy credit in the education sector not only creates extreme price inflation, but also brings out the crooks and scammers.

Obama lied, your current health care coverage died

Remember how Obama promised that if you liked your current employer-based health care coverage, you could keep it?

Yeah, well, he was lying.

Under ObamaCare, the new mandates are so expensive that many employers are considering just paying a small penalty and dumping their employees into the government plan.

CNN:

Internal documents recently reviewed by Fortune, originally requested by Congress, show what the bill's critics predicted, and what its champions dreaded: many large companies are examining a course that was heretofore unthinkable, dumping the health care coverage they provide to their workers in exchange for paying penalty fees to the government.

That would dismantle the employer-based system that has reigned since World War II. It would also seem to contradict President Obama's statements that Americans who like their current plans could keep them. And as we'll see, it would hugely magnify the projected costs for the bill, which controls deficits only by assuming that America's employers would remain the backbone of the nation's health care system.

An internal AT&T cost analysis, for example:



HT: Tim Sheithner

UPDATE: B-Daddy expands at The Liberator Today.

Finally an Explanation for the Aroma in D.C.

I knew it wasn't the scent of the Cherry Tree Blossoms, but I just couldn't quite place it. Alas, there is a rational explanation for everything.

California revenue apocalypse

California April tax revenues miss estimates by 30%!

The decline sets Sacramento back as next month's deadline for passing a budget approaches. Lawmakers face a deficit of $18.6 billion — about 20% of general fund spending — with no easy options left for addressing it, as they have already cut state services severely and temporarily raised income, sales and vehicle taxes.

"One pillar of the budget solution just got destroyed, and there's nothing that can happen between now and June that can get back the $3 billion," said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.

The retraction could mean even deeper cuts in government services — schools, healthcare for the poor and services for the elderly. Lawmakers may also be forced to consider more reductions in funds for public universities, as well as tax hikes.

This handy revenue tracker shows that we were down $1 billion vs. last year coming into April, and took in $349 million less than last year during April. How's that recovery treating you? And how about the dopey planners in Sacramento who thought we were going to take in $10 billion in April, which would have been a 37% y/y increase? Where did that pie in the sky come from? Especially, as T-Dub points out, when many of the legislature's accounting gimmicks were to pull revenue forward with increased withholding and estimated taxes, meaning there would naturally be more refunds this year!

Good thing we're handing out $10,000 checks to house buyers, huh?

HT: Balls of Fury

Incompetent DHS still can't keep terrorists off planes

You'd think after all this time and after the Christmas near-disaster in Detroit, the DHS would have a real-time no-fly list that would alert airline and airport staff when a terrorist was checking in or boarding.

You'd be wrong.

Faisal Shahzad was permitted to board a plane more than 10 hours after the feds put him on a no-fly list because the airline hadn't updated its files, officials said.

The events Monday night exposed a gap in the nation's aviation security system that nearly allowed Shahzad to flee Kennedy Airport on a flight to Dubai.

But I'm sure these people won't make any mistakes when they're running your health care!

PIIGS Pentagram

This is the unholy house of cards we're sending billions of U.S. dollars to prop up via the IMF.

Courtesy NYT

U.S. taxpayers to bail out Greece

The sagacious John Mauldin is not his usual mild self in his latest Outside the Box newsletter:

Let me start this week's Outside the Box by venting a little anger. It now looks like almost 30% of the Greek financing will come from the IMF, rather than just a small portion. And since 40% of the IMF is funded by US taxpayers, and that debt will be JUNIOR to current bond holders (if the rumors are true) I can't tell you how outraged that makes me.

What that means is that US (and Canadian and British, etc.) tax payers will be giving money to Greece who will use a lot of it to roll over old bonds, letting European banks and funds reduce their exposure to Greece while tax-payers all over the world who fund the IMF assume that risk. And does anyone really think that Greece will pay that debt back? IMF debt should be senior and no bank should be allowed to roll over debt and reduce their exposure to Greek debt on the back of foreign tax-payers.

I don't think I signed on for that duty. Why should my tax money go to help European banks? This is just wrong on so many levels and there is nothing seemingly we can do.

Welcome to Bailout Planet! And the Bailer of Last (and First) Resort is always the U.S. taxpayer.

Just to be fair, shouldn't Germany be bailing out California?