Kinda gloomy news all around this morning on the #Bidenomics front.

The Biden-HARRIS administration's never-ending student debt cancellation pandering crusade got another slapdown even before they'd finalized their latest rule.

On Sept. 5, U.S. District Judge Randal Hall in Augusta, Georgia, issued a temporary restraining order against President Joe Biden’s second effort to cancel student debt for millions of Americans. The Biden administration had previously tried to offer sweeping student debt forgiveness in 2022.

...Hall said the states had made a convincing case that the department was overstepping its authority, and blocked the Biden administration from moving forward with its plan until a Sept. 18 hearing.

“The court has only issued a temporary restraining order and the scope of the order is not clear,” said Luke Herrine, an assistant professor of law at the University of Alabama.

It appears the administration can still proceed with finalizing the rule and preparing to cancel the debt, Herrine said. But it likely won’t be able to start forgiving the loans until the courts decide on the rule’s legality, which could take months, experts say.

It's kind of a bummer, because they'd already sent around teaser notes that they had a new. improved plan coming - just in time for the election, obviously - and now they don't.

WHICH IS EXACTLY HOW THE MEAN OLD GOP AGS PLANNED IT

...As things stand, most of the Biden administration’s hopes to deliver relief to borrowers ahead of the 2024 presidential election are now stalled.

That may be part of the point, Herrine said.

“The GOP knows that student debt cancellation is popular and they want to prevent the Biden administration from doing popular things,” Herrine said.

Making people pay back debts they freely incur and not forcing taxpayers to foot the bill is also popular.

But only in certain circles.

There's another wrinkle in the student debt shirt that doesn't look like it's going to be ironed out by a desperate Biden administration in time to smooth ruffled delinquent feathers.

That grace period for not paying towards your student loans?

Well, that comes to an end next month - coincidentally just as the economy is starting to do a big yawn and slowdown for #realz, to where even the Fed has noticed. Not to mention the shrinking paychecks due to inflationary pressures.

Millions of Americans are falling behind on student loan payments a year after the pandemic freeze ended – and soon that will start hurting their credit scores.

In a report released last month, the Government Accountability Office estimated that about 10 million borrowers – more than one-quarter of the total – were behind on payments as of the end of January. About two-thirds of them were more than three months late, meaning they’d normally be classified as seriously delinquent.

Right now those borrowers are shielded from taking a hit to credit scores, because the Biden administration ordered a one-year moratorium – starting from the post-pandemic resumption last year – during which missed student payments can’t be included in credit reports.

Repayments have already been sliding over the last year.

...Transfers from Education to the Treasury suggest there’s been a steady decline in student loan repayments over the past year. Last summer, around the time when payments resumed, monthly transfers were about $7 billion — roughly where they were before Covid hit. Last month the figure fell to $4.1 billion – the lowest since 2014, excluding the pandemic freeze.

Jobs are an issue. In the consulting world, something called "ghost jobs" are on the rise for workers not used to being left hanging.

Consultants seeking work are increasingly likely to be chasing ghosts. Job listings for consulting roles with no hiring activity, also known as “ghost jobs,” hit a two-year high, according to data from hiring platform Greenhouse.

While ghost jobs have declined in finance and technology, those in consulting — a bellwether for the white-collar economy — rose to 31% in the second quarter, up from 26% two years ago and well above the prevalence across the broader job market.

...The shift is creating a lot of frustrated jobseekers in an industry where the best and brightest historically have had their choice of employers. Consultants have also bemoaned the experience of getting ghosted, a related phenomenon where the recruiter ends all communication during a hiring and interview process without any explanation.

...“When the economy is hot, you have to treat job candidates better and make decisions faster,” said Jon Stross, co-founder and president of Greenhouse, whose customers post an average of about 225,000 jobs a month. “When it flips and there are way too many candidates, it slows down decision making. Recruiters can wait for that perfect person, so they treat people worse and get away with it.”

Big, fancy consulting jobs are getting hard to find as well as little, tiny "work at Big Lots" jobs.

Big Lots did a billion dollars in sales the last quarter.. Every report mentioned the "challenging consumer environment" and these guys don't really cater to the upper class.
Chapter 11 always means job cuts. Janet Yellen said they aren't meaningful jobs though.. pic.twitter.com/3qCD6UcnKk

— Frog Capital (@FrogNews) September 9, 2024

No less than our sharp-as-a-tack Treasury Secretary says, "Don't worry about those job numbers..."

She's done great so far - let's roll with it. https://t.co/LLPfidXzBA pic.twitter.com/EFNV2yd9uV

— tree hugging s*ster 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) September 8, 2024

"...and here's a solar panel for your hut, African person!"

Times are more and more unsettled.

Consumer inflation expectations have stabilized both at the short- and longer-term horizons in recent months, but Americans continue to grow more concerned about their ability to keep up with debt payments.

...Inflation has eased substantially since reaching a four-decade high in 2022, but still-elevated price levels remain a strain on Americans’ finances. A slowdown in hiring and declining job opportunities are likely also shaping how people feel about the economy.

Keeping up has become the norm instead of getting comfortably ahead and enjoying the "extras" of life. And now student loans needs to be repaid that have been put on the sideline maybe for years?

Where does that money come from?

Credit losses are rising as US consumers shift spending to basic needs and away from purchases that aren’t vital, according to Citigroup Inc. Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason.

“The nature of spend is evolving,” Mason said at a conference hosted by Barclays Plc Monday. “It’s going from discretionary to a more staple-type spend.”

As Mike Rowe said, the pressure for a degree is "scandalous," as is the price tag.

...Rowe clarifies that he isn’t against the idea of young people pursuing college. But the benefits of attaining a degree, he argues, must be weighed against the costs involved.

“There's nothing wrong with a four-year degree,” he said. “I've got one. It served me well. But in 1984, when the dust settled, two years at community college and two years at university [cost] $12,400. Today, same schools, same course load, $95,000. So, never in the history of Western civilization has anything become more expensive more quickly than this four-year degree. And yet, and yet, the pressure we've put on kids to get one cost be damned is scandalous.”

He thinks this looming $1.58T debt bomb might be enough to make younger folks reconsider chaining themselves to paying for a degree vice learning a trade. Everyone needs a good, trustworthy plumber, mechanic, or HVAC tech.

It's not as sexy as a pricey sheepskin, but it is much better overall job security.

And in the #Bidenomics era, "stable/security" is nothing to sneer at, especially if, God forbid, she pulls this out.