THE MORNING RANT: Student Loan Defaults and the 40-Year-Old, First-Time Home Owner

Millions Of Student Borrowers Are Defaulting: They Are 40 Years Old On Average https://t.co/ie1956fW8c

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 12, 2026

Young Americans are saddled with extraordinary amounts of the worst type of debt, student loans, and it is one of the reasons that they are delaying the most-important debt they can take on, specifically mortgage debt.

There are two debt trends that intersect at about the age of 40. This is the average age now of first-time mortgage borrowers, and it is also the average age of those defaulting on their student loans. There is correlation between these two problems. In 1990, the average age of first-time home buyers was under-30.

Home ownership, even with a mortgage payment, builds wealth. Unsecured student loan debt that discourages home ownership impedes wealth-building.

According to the Liberty Street Economics website published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the average age of those defaulting on student loans is now 39-years old. But unlike traditional bankruptcies which relieve the debt burden, student loan debt is never relieved. Its default is subject to garnishment of wages, social security payments, and tax refunds. It also soils the credit rating of those defaulting, making it extremely difficult to ever obtain a mortgage.

There are so many variables at play in this mess, including the suspension of student loan repayments during the Covid panic and President Biden’s campaign promise ”to forgive all undergraduate tuition-related federal student debt from two-and four-year public colleges and universities.”

How to fix the student loan debacle is complicated, but one place to start is to immediately stop fueling the problem. Let’s stop loading up today’s 18-year-olds with crushing debt that enriches bloated colleges, many of which are left-wing indoctrination factories.

If universities had to provide guaranies for the student loans from which flow the tuition and fees the universities collect, they’d necessarily become more interested in limiting their dollar exposure. Even more important, they’d want to ensure that their students are getting degrees that lead to income-producing careers that will make possible repayment of their debt.

If the universities were to choose to start restricting credit-access to incoming students, that would then incentivize cost competition among colleges, and possibly even steer higher-education toward other models than the brick-and-ivy campus. If we’re honest, the traditional university model isn’t even about education, it’s about “the college experience,” making contacts, and obtaining an increasingly irrelevant credential. The actual education can inexpensively be obtained online for most areas of study.

Way too many young adults are starting their working careers with a “mortgage payment” worth of student loan debt, but the beneficiary is the university industrial complex. Student loan debt is destructive. Mortgage loan debt is beneficial. Let’s stop incentivizing the former at the expense of the latter.

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Throckmorton’s First Law of Live Music: “If there’s an upright bass in the band, it’s probably going to be good”

Today is Memorial Day, a sacred day in which we honor those who gave their lives in service to our country. There is no need to implore the readers of this blog to remember the purpose of this holiday, because you don’t need reminding. You are already patriots who revere those who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of the United States.

My childhood best friend lost an uncle in Vietnam. 59 years later Uncle Jack is still remembered and revered in the family. Jack’s sister, my best friend’s mother, still grieves the loss of her only brother.

Here is Kathy Matea singing a sweet, sad song from the Civil War era titled “The Vacant Chair” about a family’s first Thanksgiving after their beloved Willie was killed in the fighting.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (249) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Mending The Flag
Norman Rockwell

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (193) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 5/ 25/26

Good morning kids.

Today is of course Memorial Day, but the news does not take time off as is amply demonstrated by the lead story.

Maryland man was shot and killed by U.S. Secret Service agents Saturday evening after allegedly opening fire near a White House security checkpoint, triggering a lockdown and a massive federal law enforcement response in the nation’s capital.

Multiple sources identified the suspect as Nasire Best, 21, of Maryland.

According to the United States Secret Service, the shooting unfolded around 6 p.m. near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW when the suspect allegedly removed a handgun from a bag and began firing toward officers stationed near the White House perimeter.

A senior administration official said Best fired approximately three shots before Secret Service agents returned fire and killed him. Authorities said the suspect never breached the White House grounds.

An adult bystander was struck during the exchange of gunfire, though the person’s condition was not immediately known.

Ho hun, ho hum, another potential if not probable assassination attempt on President Trump. What is this the fifth or sixth attempt already? Yes, horrendous as it is it's not necessarily the real story, which of course is the greatest existential threat to our nation that we have or will ever face, the societal/political elements within our society that seek absolute power and the complete upending of America as founded, its destruction and transmogrification into a totalitarian tyranny. The epicenter of that movement is the Democrat Party and all those who support it.

Hasan Kwame Jeffries, the younger brother of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, is a professor of history at Ohio State University. In a recent social media post, he invoked the violence of John Brown, suggesting ‘white supremacy’ should be ended “by any means necessary.” Jeffries cited John Brown, an American abolitionist known for advocating violence to end slavery. One quote from Brown that describes his philosophy states: “I am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think vainly, flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.”
One person commented on the post, jokingly asking, “Are these ‘white supremacists’ in the room with you now?” Jeffries responded, “Nah. They’re in the White House.” The post further suggests that Jeffries was referring to President Trump and his administration in the original post.

In any case, and sincere apologies for that pornographic debasement as this is Memorial Day so let us remember all those who gave their llives in defense of this country and let us beg their forgiveness for allowing the cancer of the Hakeem Jeffries' in our midst to have gained positions of power and influence to the extent that the cause of freedom and the nation our loved ones gave their lives to defend and preserve is closer than ever to being lost.

I can only imagine my dear uncle, for whom I was named and who was cut to ribbons by a Jap machine gun on Saipan, looking down from Heaven and weeping at how low we have sunk.

Let us do what we can to ensure the sacrifices he and all who gave their lives were not in vain. God bless their memories.

Have a great day, one and all.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• The Navy will bury Fireman 3rd Class Royle Luker with full military honors on May 30 at New Bethel Cemetery in Plainview, the Arkansas town he left to enlist in June 1941, Stars and Stripes reported. Rear Adm. Michael Van Poots, deputy commander of Submarine Forces, will preside over the ceremony. (RELATED: Nearly 150 Dead From Pearl Harbor Attack Could Be On Track For Identification After Milestone Reached)
  Arkansas Teen Sailor Killed At Pearl Harbor Will Finally Be Laid To Rest After Nearly 85 Years
  
• Memorial Day means little if America cannot preserve the monuments honoring the men who gave their last full measure of devotion.
  Remembering the Memorials on Memorial Day
  
• Americans who, in shocking numbers, hate America know nothing of the values that made us the kindest, most generous country in history.
  On Memorial Day, Unpatriotic Americans Know Nothing of America’s Greatness
  
• Pride in past valor may be best expressed in the St. Crispin’s Day speech from “Henry V” (Act IV, Scene iii), delivered by the young king on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt. . .
  ‘We band of brothers:’ A Memorial Day meditation

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 06:45 AM | Comments (274) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 25 May 2026

Top Story

• Space combat game Star Citizen has raised a billion dollars. (Roberts Space Industries)
  
  It's still in alpha.
  
  As it has been since 2012.
  
  And people are still throwing money at it.
  
  I guess they have to be doing something right.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (72) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - May 24, 2026 [Doof]

Howdy Hordelings! Welcome to the Sunday night ONT. Appreciate you spending some of your holiday weekend here. Open thread, as always. Fashion and music, as always. What's on YOUR mind tonight?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (564) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: Fourth May Edition!

Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!

Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be the Fourth May Edition? Going to be a little bit of a quick one again tonight - I'm traveling and naturally left this until the last minute.

With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?

Posted by: Weasel at 07:00 PM | Comments (174) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start In The Morning!

Why is it that we suspend all of our eating and drinking rules when in airports?

That's a glass of champagne and a Bloody Mary at 6:45AM.

While I will occasionally have a Bloody Mary, and I try to drink champagne as much as I can, I never combine the two...except when flying. And the crap food in airports, especially the jumped-up steamtable stuff in the airport lounges? Yeah...I'll eat that too, and have seconds!

If you look closely at the glass of champagne, or simply the blurred background, you will see what sane people drink at that hour...a cup of hot tea. But that seems so wrong to me, especially when the booze is free, and the champagne is good!

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (206) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

What the hell am I going to do with this thing? First of all, it weighs 17 pounds. Second, film was last made for it in 1977 (total guess*). Third, modern digital cameras produce superb quality photographs, and my eye for the fine points of photography does not extend to the qualitative difference between film colors and digital colors.

And all of this means nothing, because it was my wife's grandfather's camera, and we can never discard it.

This x 1,000 is why I want to burn the place down and start over!

*Ooh! I was close. The last color film was manufactured in 1977, and the last black & white film was made in 1992.

Posted by: CBD at 02:55 PM | Comments (162) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The All-Encompassing Naïveté of The True Believers

Nicholas Kristof is entirely unimportant. His laughable article claiming that Israel uses trained dogs to sexually assault Palestinian prisoners is clownish and will disappear without a trace, except for a small group of rabid Jew-haters who will dredge it up occasionally, even though it has been thoroughly debunked.

He is a reliable leftist who has spent his entire professional life cultivating an air of moral superiority, coupled with the arrogance to claim that he is in fact detached...merely an observer of the human condition.

He is unimportant because there are thousands of people exactly like him who produce a fungible product for their media masters. One ardent progressive's article about [fill in the blank] is functionally and stylistically identical to the next. Whether it is Palestine or Global Warming or EVs or clean water or racism in American policing; the stories are all the same blend of pseudo-intellectual rigor combined with hyper-emotional rhetoric designed to do one thing...sway the reader toward the progressive cant.

And they reek of that moral superiority and smugness that is so, so grating to the observant consumer. But it is mostly honest and heartfelt. Sure, some of these progressive drones pumping out identical articles about X or Y or Z are in it for the influence they believe they can exert on the body politic to sway them, and their manipulation of reality is entirely intentional.

But Kristof is almost certainly an earnest and honest reporter. That he is an ignorant fool without any understanding of the human condition is secondary to his feeling that his reporting is absolutely correct on his elevated moral plane, even if that pesky thing called "fact-checking" is conspicuously absent. Is he an anti-semite? Maybe? But he is certainly a fool.

No...the blame for that ridiculous but politically expedient article lies with the senior management of the New York Times, who knew quite well that the article was mostly nonsense...but published it anyway!

And why? Because they have a carefully constructed and longstanding policy of antagonism toward Israel and traditional Judaism. They also have a curated list of other causes that they support, including socialism. And that goes back a very long way. The editors of the New York Times were aware of Stalin's systematic starvation and murder of millions of Ukrainians in 1932-1933, yet they chose to ignore it because it guaranteed them access to Soviet leadership, and it furthered the cause of world socialism. Walter Duranty, the correspondent, was a useful idiot in the process.

So the next time the NYT or the WaPo or any number of reliably leftist rags and media outlets publishes such a rank and obvious propaganda piece; don't blame the writer or talking head. He may very well be complicit, but it is also likely that he is an ignorant, poorly educated, insular knucklehead who simply doesn't know enough to have an educated opinion on anything other than ketchup or mustard on a hot dog.

Blame the media bosses who have a plan, and execute it very well.

Posted by: CBD at 11:50 AM | Comments (242) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Book Thread: May 24th, 2026[Sabrina Chase]

Welcome to the Book Thread, Guest Poster edition! I will be your host as we explore all sorts of book-related topics. All usual Book Thread rules are incorporated by reference (pets, beverage, clothing covering the lower limbs, etc.) with the special Sabrina Chase exemption for those stylish persons preferring kilts. Now let us proceed to today's topic, which is ...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (315) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 24 May 2026

Top Story

• Samsung made a last-minute deal to give massive bonuses - not as massive as SK Hynix, but still enough to pay off my entire mortgage - so everything is peachy and things can go back to normal, right? Right? (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Yeah, right. Now every Samsung employee everywhere except the memory division is upset and seeking increased bonuses.
  
  Notably including the division that tests and packages the bare memory dies, an essential step before they can be sold to customers.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (165) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night Club ONT - May 23, 2026 [D Squared]

Welcome to Club ONT - a collaboration of The Disco and The Dino. Come in in, grab a drink or 3.

Raise one in honor of those who fought and died for this great country. They are the reason for this holiday weekend. "Time Will Not Dim the Glory of Their Deeds"

[Top photo: Flags for Memorial Day at Boston Common]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (324) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Evening Movie Post [moviegique]: Obsession

If I were Hollywood, I'd be worried. I mean, sure, box office is through the floor, the middle-class backbone of the industry moved out of California, and even I couldn't kid myself that I had any idea how to entertain the masses any more.

But I think what would put me into a cold sweat are guys like Damian McCarthy, making profitable movies that are better  constructed and better looking for a fraction of the price. Or worse, perhaps, Curry Barker, whose little horror film Obsession, made for less than a million dollars, made $20 million in its first four days, with an additional $7 million world-wide. (And over $40 million worldwide in its first week.)

What's the secret to this film's smashing success? The staggering drawing power of Andy Richter.

I kid. He's in this film, and the only name I recognized, yet I never actually noticed him while watching the movie. (I'm sure he played the second female lead's father, owner of the music store where the four principals work. But I'm actually guessing, it was such a small part, and he's lost a lot of weight and gotten a lot older since the early days of Conan's show—about the last time I saw him.)

Pictured: Not Andy Richter. (I couldn't find even a single shot of him in this movie.)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:29 PM | Comments (237) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - May 23, 2026 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. For this week, the Wheel of Hobbies (TM) decided on a color theme for this Hobby Thread.

A color theme? What does that mean? Colors are a "hobby"? The ways of the Wheel are strange and mysterious but there is a method to the madness.

[Top Photo: Benjamin Moore Paint Color Fan Deck. Yours for only $30]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (172) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, May 23

* * *

Good afternoon and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Thanks for stopping by. Kick back and enjoy the world of animals.

Would you like a treat?

Let's relax a little with the animals and leave the world of politics and current events outside today.

Posted by: K.T. at 03:28 PM | Comments (56) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, May 23

This is a polyantha rose, Verdun, that doesn't get much over two feet. It's a hybrid from France, first introduced in 1918, could explain the name. It has a flush of bloom in the spring, then a few every once in awhile through the summer. I've had it for years but it rarely blooms this heavily; since the picture was taken all the buds at the top have opened too. The flower is very double and very pink, can see the double blossom and the color better in the closeup.

Lirio100

It is a lovely rose, and a wonderful way to remember Verdun, where a lot of terrifying things happened over the centuries. My grandfather served near there as a chaplain in WW I, but it was a fort starting in the fourth century. We can remember it for the rose and for sugared almonds in the Gardening Thread. And be thankful that there are memorials rather than more fighting there now.

*

Pat* has irises!

Posted by: K.T. at 01:51 PM | Comments (70) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Seen some transcendent fortitude and steadfastness lately? Where?

It was the transcendent fortitude and steadfastness of these men who in adversity and in suffering through the darkest hour of our history held faithful to an ideal. Here men endured that a nation might live.

-Herbert Hoover

Hope your Memorial Day Weekend is starting well. As a country, I think we are a little short on transcendent fortitude and steadfastness. I thought it might be interesting to review a few things from our history that I have run across this week that reminded me of fortitude and steadfastness, and then maybe we could discuss a few other things that we should remember this weekend.

Posted by: K.T. at 11:08 AM | Comments (133) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

*****

Good morning boys and girls and everything in between from the streets of Manhattan. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few house keeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Iron River)

1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind, be nice. Don't be Pretti Good.
3) Running with sharp objects? You do the math there "Three Fingers".
4) Have a great weekend!!!

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 08:00 AM | Comments (341) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 23 May 2026

Top Story

• Spotify is focusing on AI to deliver everything except what it is paid to deliver. (Tech Crunch)
  
  Spotify wants to become an "everything audio" app, only it's all AI. Audiobooks read by AI; podcasts read by AI; your daily schedule... Read to you by AI.
  
  Want to listen to music? Well, sure, that's in there too. Somewhere. Probably.
  
  
  
• Speaking of AI 13% of "skills" - instructions for AI agents on how to perform a task, as opposed to "prompts" which tell it what you want it do do - on ClawHub and skills.sh have critical security vulnerabilities. (The Register)
  
  Either upstream - the creator accidentally leaving an API key in the file when uploading it to be shared - or downstream, telling your AI agent to hand over all your valuables.
  
  How do developers get these dangerous files registered on skill sharing sites? Simple: They know that nobody ever reads beyond the first page, not even security scanners:

  The most successful strategy for evading detection was to overflow the context window of the scanner - making the skill too long for the scanner to handle. "In ClawHub-style review, only the first 10K characters of long SKILL.md files are passed to the LLM reviewer, so we place the malicious instruction beyond this boundary while keeping it in the submitted skill," the authors explain.

  Face meet palm.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (64) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Yes, It's True. This Man Has No ONT

Welcome to Friday night everyone. I'm afraid I have some bad news:

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (517) | Trackbacks (Suck)