Just last week we revisited [3] the surging 'flations' in almost everything we 'need' - led of course by the screaming credit-fueled bubble in college tuition. Today's episode of "nope, no inflation here' is brought you to by the number "+101%" and the words "college textbooks." As the CEO of the Education Policy Institute exclaims "we are on an untenable trajectory;" a fact that is so evident in the difference between 'recreational' books (-1.5% in the last decade) and 'college text'-books (+101.5% in the same period). The rise is more than triple that of CPI and, as Bloomberg reports, is "one of the reasons that students drop out, because its an unforeseen cost." But rising prices are good, right? Just ask investors in the Caracas Stock Exchange [4]... (especially when unit labor costs are stagnating [5])... and now JPM ceasing its student loan operations, we are sure, will help... [6]
[7]
"We keep on stretching the proverbial rubber band, and at some point it’s going to come back and hit us in the face and it’s going to hurt."
Source: Bloomberg