Word: iou
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...What's not watered down is the tab. The cost of average tuition rose 6.5% this fall, and a report released on Dec. 1 by the Project on Student Debt showed that the IOU is getting bigger. Two-thirds of all students now leave college with outstanding loans; the average amount of debt rose to $23,200 in 2008. In the last academic year, the total amount loaned to students increased about 18% from the previous year, to $81 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Education...
...same time, an important feature of the latest Detroit dealings is the lopsided favoritism shown the United Auto Workers (UAW). Take the Chrysler plan: Taxpayers were to trade in a $4 billion IOU (i.e., the government loans) for about 5% of Chrysler's stock. The UAW, on the other hand, was trading in a $4.5 billion IOU (related to its VEBA health-care trust for retirees) in return for 55% of Chrysler stock. Does that seem fair? A third group, the secured debt holders, were to trade in a $6.9 billion IOU and get $2 billion in cash - an amount...
Next, look at GM's offer. The unsecured bondholders are owed $27 billion by GM, and they are being asked to trade that IOU for a 10% equity stake. The UAW's VEBA trust, on the other hand, is trading in a $10.2 billion IOU and getting a 39% equity stake. If these were poker chips, you could say the croupier has arbitrarily decided to value bondholders' chips at 37 cents apiece and the UAW's VEBA chips at $3.90 each...
...more like $3 billion. But if you accept that troubled-debtor logic, then it's only fair to apply the same logic to the money owed by Chrysler to the UAW's VEBA - so its chips should be marked down as well. (In fact, by law the VEBA's IOU is junior to the bondholders' IOU.) Thus, the VEBA's IOU should not translate into a 39% equity stake but a small sliver of that. (Read about Detroit's attempts to renew itself...
Life in California has been rough enough these last three months as government all but ground to a halt while legislators haggled over the long-overdue budget. The state had to send out $3.3 billion in IOU notices to taxpayers and vendors; thousands of construction projects were stalled; and state offices were furloughed. Finally, after a record-breaking 45-hour Senate session, the elusive two-thirds majority vote was reached to pass a budget plan that includes $15 billion in service cuts and spending reductions, $12.8 billion in temporary tax hikes and $11.4 billion in borrowing...