College Students and the Economic Crisis

Taking notes in class, studying for midterms, getting to work on time; these are things usually on the minds of college students. These days, they have much more to worry about.
With an economic crisis plaguing our country, one greater than any college student has witnessed in their lifetime, it’s hard not to be transfixed day after day with each story and each lost dollar.
The United States government has made a difficult but necessary decision to prevent the economy from being completely destroyed. With the newly signed $700 billion bailout bill, the United States treasury will soon be buying mortgage backed securities, taking debt off the hands of banks, hedge funds, and pension funds. The crisis is quite simple. The banks and mortgage companies facing bad debt are receiving bad debt ratings which have quickly lead to a decline in their stock price, and possible bankruptcy. The Economic crisis has turned into an economic panic, which has lead to the current market failures. The bailout bill hopes to limit the panic by paying off the debt and allowing the banks and mortgage companies to merge.
The crisis is reaching all different age groups. The middle-age workers have gotten it the worst. With the loss in jobs and loss in property value, home owners are paying mortgages that are higher than their equity, meaning they are no longer paying for an asset.
The media has focused primarily on that group controlling the job market. Their sons and daughters, college students, will be greatly affected by the crisis as well. The concerns facing college students are quite evident. Finding a job will be very difficult. Not only has the size of the job market decreased, but they will now have to compete with older, more experienced professionals who have recently lost their jobs and are back in the job search themselves. Some have expressed concerns about increased interest rates on loans and the difficulty they will now face getting a loan for a home or to continue their education in the future. Banks, weary after this crisis of making another mistake, are fearful of approving an unqualified person for a loan.
Nonetheless, the clear concern among students is the job market. “It makes me nervous,” Kristine Sackerlotzky, a freshman at American University said. “I’m worried that when I get out of school I’m not going to have a job”(news.medill.northwestern.edu). Some college seniors, already with job offers, are concerned themselves, believing that some companies will have no choice but to retract the offers already made. It is a very scary time in the lives of most college students.
Others, though the minority, are almost completely oblivious to the economic crisis, or at least oblivious to the negative effect it will play in the future of their financial well-being. College students often get wrapped up in their own lives and forget about the outside world. The partying, the studying, class, it keeps them isolated from the news. “All I know is that there is some bill saving the economy,” a Maryland junior math major, who wished to remain unnamed, said. “I’m not really worried about it. Most of my friends agree that our schoolwork is more important than anything else in the world right now.” It takes time and dedication to understand the economic crisis, and some college students just don’t have it. For those that do, distractions from studying come much easier these days. Flip on your television to MSNBC, and you can be stuck there for hours, worrying about your very own financial future.