Apprehension of bias: civil service to personal riches

In the two years between April 2013 and March 2015, senator and secretary of state Hillary Clinton collected $21,667,000 in “speaking fees.” We have so far not been allowed to see what woClinton 10 ten feesrds of wisdom Clinton shared. But thanks to mandatory financial disclosures released this month, we can see which corporations were buying and note multiple trips to Goldman Sachs. Morgan Stanley. Deutsche Bank. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. UBS Wealth Management among others… See the full list in this NY Post article: How corporate America bought Hillary Clinton for $21 million. Beside is a snapshot of the first 10.  This kind of money doesn’t come for free.  At the very least it creates apprehension of bias and undermines objectivity and public trust.
Clinton is a vivid example of policy makers for hire. But she is far from alone.  Rampant conflicts of interest are bipartisan thanks to revolving doors between government and business.  Rules have to be implemented requiring minimum cooling off periods between public office and consulting gigs in private practice.  Also there must be mandatory disclosures of all such fees and speech transcripts.  Transparency is critical to demanding better behavior and personal accountability.

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College debt has TRIPLED since 2005

Is the American Dream: to live in debt for the rest of your life? Apparently.

Total student loan debt in the United States has tripled over the past decade to a whopping $1.232 trillion.  Student debt now accounts for a larger share of household debt than credit card, auto loan, and all other forms of debt, except for mortgages, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The amount of student loan debt that was 90 or more days delinquent totaled more than $29.4 billion as of the end of 2015, which accounted for almost a third of all household debt that was 90 or more days delinquent.  See:  Student loan debt debt has tripled to $1.23 trillion–yes trillion.

And this is not just a problem for America. An over-priced education industry and debt sales firms are preying on the naive and financially illiterate and digging the world’s would-be-future economic engines deep into an increasingly insurmountable hole.  This is why there has to be a fiduciary responsible exacted on all those who are giving financial advice.  The advisors cannot be the same people who are being compensated for getting people into financial risk and debt.  The wreckage from debt-driven sales models are evident all around us.  See:  The college debt crisis is even worse than you think:

“I was 17 when I entered this process,” a student says. “I didn’t understand anything about large amounts of money…She is now a 27-year-old trying to reckon with the fallout from those early decisions. To prepare for the future, she recently attended a class for prospective home buyers and was stunned at how comparatively transparent the process was. “You should have to be preapproved before taking on college debt. You’re buying an education, after all. For the debt I have, I could have almost bought a house in Florida.”

“…whether they are actively recruiting these low-income students for reasons of open-the-door altruism or keep-the-lights-on capitalism — or, more likely, some combination of the two — there has been a huge, largely hidden byproduct of this dramatic increase in access: These students are often being loaded up with staggering debt that is completely out of whack with the earnings boost they’ll likely get from a degree at a nonselective or less selective college. Already, average student loan debt is higher in Boston than any other metro area in the country, 44 percent above the national average, according to Credit Karma. But  more troubling, many of these low-income students — and, at some colleges, most of them — are not graduating. That means these non-completers are leaving campus saddled with lots of debt but none of the salary gains that traditionally come with a bachelor’s degree.”

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Why conventional energy and transportation obsolete by 2030

It is common for status quo experts and insiders to dramatically underestimate the viability and pace of disruptive technology.  Good to realize.

Tony Seba’s Clean Disruption Keynote presentation at the Swedbank Nordic Energy Summit in Oslo, Norway, March 17th, 2016.  The keynote, based on the book ‘Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation’ asserts that four technology categories will disrupt energy and transportation by:
1- Batteries / Energy Storage, 2- Electric Vehicles, 3-Self-Driving Vehicles, 4- Solar Energy.  Here is a direct video link.  Also read:  The math shows shared, autonomous, solar-powered vehicles are inevitable.

The outcome of the technology driven Clean Disruption is that by 2030:
• All new vehicles will be electric.
• All new vehicles will be autonomous (self-driving).
• Oil will be obsolete
• Coal, natural gas and nuclear will be obsolete
• 80+ per cent of parking spaces will be obsolete.
• Individual car ownership will be obsolete.
• All new energy will be provided by solar (and wind)

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