<p>i've been curious how this entire economic situation will affect loans. specifically, in my case, stafford federal loans. i've been taking Stafford subsidized federal loans since freshman year.</p>
<p>Freshman year - 2625
Sophomore year - 4500
Junior year - 5500
And according to what I've read from Fordham, if I'm eligible, I should be able to get a $5500 stafford subsidized loan my senior year. They've been spot on with the first 3 years and what I've gotten.</p>
<p>I've taken out all these loans via CitiBank.</p>
<p>I have avoided taking out private loans as I don't want to having the interest accrue over 4 years I'm here.</p>
<p>However with credit crunch, how will this affect these federal loans? Do they even affect them at all?</p>
<p>And I suppose for other students who are looking into private loans, how exactly this will affect the availability of private student loans? Is this credit crunch going to mean that there will be less money to be given out in loans?</p>
<p>On a side note, it seems like no bank is safe just hearing about all these banks that are being bought out or going bankrupt. How safe are CitiBank and JP Chase?</p>
<p>Nobody knows for sure. The Congress WILL pass a bill today. That will free up capital. The REAL question is how much damage the multi TRILLION dollar derivatives blow up will have on the global and national economy. There is LOTS of anger at WallStreet for creating thiese monstrous instruments that Warren Buffett called the WMD of Financial Reality. They have threatened EVERY bank in the United States, the ENTIRE hedgefund business and now even insurance companies. Its frankly, very very scary.</p>
<p>I am so angry at WallStreet and the politicians that deregulated to allow these instruments and who stoked the real estate market to subprime mortages I could spit. While Bush did nothing to FIX the problem, the people who CREATED the problem and stoked it were Clinton and HIS administration. True, he balanced a few federal budgets...now we know how.....</p>
<p>we have no choice but to pass this bill. Its either that or a total capitulation in our capital markets which would cause a global depression the likes of which we have never seen. </p>
<p>But yes, I think student loans are going to be there for a while, until the US Treasury runs out of money, which may be sooner than people realize.</p>
<p>I am sorry to be bearer of bad news. But its awful what they have uncovered in this crisis.</p>
<p>Wrong. If we let the market adjust itself we will have a severe recession for about a year, true.
But if we continue to inflate the currency, we may face something much worse - the collapse of our currency - which will result in perhaps a decade depression.
Government/Federal Reserve caused this problem by interfering with the economy, and government/federal reserve will make this problem worse by further interfering.</p>
<p>MRoCkEd, are you an economics major? I just finished reading P.J. O'Rourke's "On the Wealth of Nations" and everything you said above coincides with Adam Smith's philosophy. However, didn't this problem with the subprime lending occur because of a lack of government regulations?</p>
<p>I'm not an econ major - I just have an interest in austrian economics which has predicted all of our economic troubles, but unfortunately most schools don't teach it. A lot of people are being led to believe that a lack of government regulation/ a free market caused these problems. It's actually quite the opposite; the fact that we haven't had a free market is the problem. We can never truly have a free market as long as we have a federal reserve (interestingly enough, a central bank is one of the key planks of communism). For now I'll leave you with this commentary that points precisely to the root cause of our economic woes, and the negatives of this bailout:</p>
<p>Commentary:</a> Bailouts will lead to rough economic ride - CNN.com</p>