Sallie Mae swings to $104 million loss in 1Q

Sallie Mae lost $104 million in the first quarter and fell short of Wall Street's expectations amid a severe disruption in the troubled student loan industry.

[Lance Winslow]

This speaks volumes about the financial crisis: Sallie Mae doesn't sell mortgages and they have no exposure to subprime loan defaults except for irresponsible speculation in high yielding financial derivatives.
It's not about foreclosures on mortgages causing hundred million dollar losses, it's about bad banks making bad deals to make big money.

[Mike Paget]

Oh yeah, Sally Mae does swing! she's been swinging a long time. And seriously, the banks are in trouble with the man~(government)thus calling out to uncle sam like a farmer asking the bank for help. It would be nice to see Sam go out and foreclose on said banks as ruthless as they did to the farmers.

[Mike Paget]

It's not about foreclosures on mortgages causing hundred million dollar losses, it's about bad banks making bad deals to make big money.

Indeed you are correct !

[leo from shanghai]

TAIL WAGGING THE DOG! cut student tuition fees by 50%! the idea behind public universities was to give access to children of working people not saddle students with 30 year debt repayments. the universty of oklahoma football coach rakes in $6,000,000.00 in 2008. hershey candy moving jobs to monterrey mexico maybe PENN STATE should be outsourced south of border.

[john]

do not worry about those rich guys in the banks and now even the rich builders , they made big before and they willkeep making it with king georges favor ,, but those of you who personally made bad choices , screw youse ,, thus sayeth the bush god

[Federalist Papers]

Not everyone should go to college. That is why degrees are not worth that much anymore. Hell the universities have been pumping graduates out like a production line.

[Lance Winslow]

Federalist Papers wrote:

Not everyone should go to college. That is why degrees are not worth that much anymore. Hell the universities have been pumping graduates out like a production line.

Yup, y'all just keep pluggin' away at that GED, F.P.

[Shoe]

Federalist Papers wrote:

Not everyone should go to college. That is why degrees are not worth that much anymore. Hell the universities have been pumping graduates out like a production line.

This is true but a lot of jobs that only required a high school diploma ten years ago now requires at least a associates degree. Add that with the fact that there aren't that many manufacturing jobs in this country anymore and it makes for a tough situation. The HB1 visa doesn't help either. Without a doubt these are very tough times and things are only going to get worse. It is time for the feds to start raising interest rates and squeezing these banks and Wall Street. Drive the value of the dollar up and stop this run away inflation. It would be very tough but the end results would be for the betterment of everyone. The feds must stop bailing these lending institutions out. This very possibly could become the second major depression in this countries history.We cannot survive forever with the dollar falling like a lead ball being thrown from a bridge and this country going deeper and deeper into debt. The sad part is that our congress, senate and the executive branch either doesn't know what to do or doesn't really care.