4,726 = the number of colleges and universities United States.
$589 billion = the amount spent by students annually.
Of that figure,
$393 billion = tuition fees, and
$196 billion = expenses like travel and housing.
538% = the percentage increase of the cost of a college education over the past three decades.
4.5 = the number times more expensive it is to go to college today than it was back in 1985, even allowing for inflation.
So is the cost worth it?
Does the education system make sense?
The vast majority of Americans never even consider these important questions. They are fixated on their kids going to college – end of debate.
Whether they have the ability or not, or whether it is the right career path for them or not, if the parents can afford it and/or the kids can get a student loan (which they usually can) then they go to college.
But there is a heavy cost to pay, as we have just seen above. By the time they graduate 70% of students are lumbered with a loan balance averaging $28,400. Nationwide in the US, student loan debt now sits at a staggering $1.2 trillion, which is nearly 50% higher than all the outstanding auto-loan debt, and almost double credit card debt.
While it is true that college graduates have more opportunities to earn more than those without a degree, the number of those good paying jobs is limited. Most college graduates have to settle for a lot less that they were planning for when they started that expensive college education.
What is often forgotten is that there are many other opportunities out there in the workplace for someone who spends their time and money learning a trade or a skill. A friend of mine who is a plumber earns many times more than many of his contemporaries with college degrees and office jobs.
In fact, since more and more young Americans are turning their noses up at manual type jobs and opting for expensive colleges, there will soon be a shortage of essential trades such as plumbers, electricians and so forth, making those jobs even more lucrative than they are now.
Another month has appeared on the calendar. Unbelievably we’re almost half way through 2014 already!
But what better way to start the first week of another month than with another twenty brain-buster questions.
Business, politics, geography, history, nature, movies and music are all in here this week.
Let’s see how you do.
Enjoy and good luck.
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Q. 1: What do octopus’ and goat’s eyes have in common?
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Q. 2: What common English word comes from the French expression meaning “death pledge”?
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Q. 3: Adjusting for inflation, which of these two men is the richest man in history, John D Rockerfeller or Bill Gates?
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Q. 4: What is the term for yawning and stretching at the same time?
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Q. 5: What US President is famous for having filed a report for a UFO sighting in 1973, calling it “the darndest thing I’ve ever seen.”
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Q. 6: In the last 4000 years, how many new animals have been domesticated?
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Q. 7: What is the Greek version of the Old Testament called?
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Q. 8: Soweto is a very famous location on the outskirts of Johannesburg in South Africa, but how did it get its name?
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Q. 9: Between 1926 and 1976, John Wayne appeared in over 170 motion pictures, and became one of America’s biggest box office stars, but what was the title of his last movie?
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Q. 10: What is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon? (Two bonus points if you can name the year too.)
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Q. 11: what was the only part of the United States that was invaded by the Japanese during WWII?
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Q. 12: Why do spiral staircases in medieval castles run clockwise?
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Q. 13: What are the only birds able to fly backwards.
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Q. 14: If you were standing in the northernmost point in the contiguous (48) US states, what state would you be standing in?
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Q. 15: Name the six main characters in the long running TV comedy series ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’? (A point for each and bonus points if you can name the actors who played them.)
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Q. 16: What is the only Canadian Province that borders the Great Lakes?
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Q. 17: Only four letters in the latin alphabet look the same if you turn them upside down or see them from behind, a point for each one you can name correctly?
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Q. 18: Previously set in Los Angeles, Washington DC and New York, what City is the location for the latest series of the hit TV show ‘24’?
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Q. 19: What is the only US State that begins with an “A” but does not end with an “A”?
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Q. 20: Who shared ‘Endless Love’ with Luther Van-Dross in 1994?
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ANSWERS
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Q. 1: What do octopus’ and goat’s eyes have in common?
A. 1: Both have rectangular pupils.
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Q. 2: What common English word comes from the French expression meaning “death pledge”?
A. 2: The common English word ‘mortgage’ comes from the French expression meaning “death pledge”.
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Q. 3: Adjusting for inflation, which of these two men is the richest man in history, John D Rockerfeller or Bill Gates?
A. 3: When adjusted for inflation, John D Rockerfeller is the richest man in the history of the world, with a net worth 10 times more than Bill Gates.
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Q. 4: What is the term for yawning and stretching at the same time?
A. 4: When you yawn and stretch at the time, you are “pandiculating.”
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Q. 5: What US President is famous for having filed a report for a UFO sighting in 1973, calling it “the darndest thing I’ve ever seen.”
A. 5: Jimmy Carter filed a report for a UFO sighting in 1973.
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Q. 6: In the last 4000 years, how many new animals have been domesticated?
A. 6: Bit of a trick question, in the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated. Take a point if you answered ‘none’ or ‘zero’.
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Q. 7: What is the Greek version of the Old Testament called?
A. 7: The Greek version of the Old Testament is called the ‘Septuagint’.
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Q. 8: Soweto is a very famous location on the outskirts of Johannesburg in South Africa, but how did it get its name?
A. 8: Soweto in South Africa was derived from SOuth WEst TOwnship.
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Q. 9: Between 1926 and 1976, John Wayne appeared in over 170 motion pictures, and became one of America’s biggest box office stars, but what was the title of his last movie?
A. 9: John Wayne’s final movie was ‘The Shootist’, made in 1976 and in which he played the part of aging former gunslinger John Bernard Books.
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Q. 10: What is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon? (Two bonus points if you can name the year too.)
A. 10: February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
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Q. 11: what was the only part of the United States that was invaded by the Japanese during WWII?
A. 11: Alaska was the only part of the United States that was invaded by the Japanese during WWII. The territory was the island of Adak in the Aleutian Chain. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked, but not invaded.
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Q. 12: Why do spiral staircases in medieval castles run clockwise?
A. 12: Spiral staircases in medieval castles run clockwise because all knights used to be right-handed and would therefore carry their swords in their right hand.
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Q. 13: What are the only birds able to fly backwards.
A. 13: Hummingbirds are the only birds able to fly backwards.
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Q. 14: If you were standing in the northernmost point in the contiguous (48) US states, what state would you be standing in?
A. 14: If you were standing in the northernmost point in the contiguous (48) US states, you’d be standing in Minnesota.
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Q. 15: Name the six main characters in the long running TV comedy series ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’? (A point for each and bonus points if you can name the actors who played them.)
A. 15: The characters in the Beverly Hillbillies were Jed Clampett, Granny, Ellie May, Jethro, unscrupulous banker Mr Drysdale and his long-suffering assistant Miss Hathaway, played respectively by Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, Max Baer, Jr., Raymond Bailey and Nancy Kulp.
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Q. 16: What is the only Canadian Province that borders the Great Lakes?
A. 16: Ontario is the only Canadian Province that borders the Great Lakes.
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Q. 17: Only four letters in the latin alphabet look the same if you turn them upside down or see them from behind, a point for each one you can name correctly?
A. 17: The only letters in the latin alphabet that look the same if you turn them upside down or see them from behind are ‘H’ ‘I’ ‘O’ and ‘X’.
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Q. 18: Previously set in Los Angeles, Washington DC and New York, what City is the location for the latest series of the hit TV show ‘24’?
A. 18: The latest series of ‘24’ is set in London, England.
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Q. 19: What is the only US State that begins with an “A” but does not end with an “A”?
A. 19: Arkansas is the only US State that begins with “A” but does not end with “A”, all the other States that begin with “A”, Arizona, Alabama and Alaska, also end with “A”.
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Q. 20: Who shared ‘Endless Love’ with Luther Van-Dross in 1994?
You couldn’t exactly call yesterday “Black Friday” the way financial pundits like to do, but that traditional “safe haven”, gold, certainly lost a lot of its shine.
In fact the price of gold went into freefall, plunging the best part of $100 an ounce in a massive selling spree and ending up below the magic $1500 mark for the first time in a while.
I don’t think anyone is sure yet just what triggered the almost panic sell off on the Comex, but my gut feeling is that, once started, the computer generated trading gizmos used by the big hedge funds etc., kicked in big time and made matters go from bad to worse.
These automatic trading monsters trigger sales when a pre-chosen stop loss figure is reached, one stop loss sell off triggers the next and so on until there is a massive market plunge, as happened yesterday. The same could just as easily happen on the stock market.
What most ordinary folks don’t realize is that the majority of traders in the financial markets are idiots. They just hang around looking at their screens and then follow whatever they see happening. It’s the herd mentality syndrome. When the big boys start to sell then the little boys follow suit and the whole thing goes from bad to worse, often without anyone really knowing who started it or why it is happening.
That seems to have been the case yesterday as there were no catastrophic economic indicators, like major inflation fears, currency collapses, etc., to trigger a significant movement one way or the other.
Whatever caused it, it is a warning to investors to be cautious. It could be a blip or the harbinger of turbulent times ahead.
Although there are many doom-and-gloom merchants with their “the end is nigh” web sites urging their followers to dump paper money, fiat currencies they call them, and stock up on gold, the truth is that gold has not been a good investment in recent months and years.
By definition the very worst a good investment should do is hold its value in line with inflation – if it doesn’t you are losing value.
For almost two years now gold has been steadily falling in value. Anyone who bought, for example, in August or September 2011 has seen their investment fall significantly in value – down by more than twenty percent in fact. You put $10,000 in, you get less than $7,900 out, and the dealers take their cut both ways.
So will the bear market for gold continue or was Friday just a glitch? Well, if you could answer that one for certain you would be able to make a lot of money.
My feeling, for what it’s worth is that the price will probably fall further. Maybe not so dramatically as yesterday, but it could easily trickle downwards to the $1200 region.
That assumes no dramatic sell offs by bankrupt governments and banks, because that is definitely a last resort measure that they would be most reluctant to take. If or when it does happen it means BIG financial trouble for everyone.
So will gold ever be a good investment again?
Warren Buffet never thought so, but it could be. Possibly a very good investment. But probably not a long term hold. Many western economies are just hanging together at the moment. The amount of debt and insolvency has to mean that at some stage the normal investment vehicles like currencies, stocks, bonds etc., will start to suffer and people will turn back to “safe havens” like gold.
IF you buy at the right time, and remember that you need to get rid of it and fast when the cycle turns again, you could do very well. But I wouldn’t jump in and buy it just yet.
fasab 