I am really struggling with this one… I am a pretty active investor and the recent come back in the financials has got me looking for investments. Since I look at Sallie Mae on a regular basis (because of my hatred for them) I keep fairly up to date as to what is going on. It appears to me that the stock is probably going to come back strong in the next few years after the nose dive over the last two years. Looking at the chart for Sallie Mae you can see a huge run up in the last 10 years. Our post industrial society is in a place where we need more and more education and the demand for financing to fill the gap will be high. Also the demand for education increases in a recession because people are looking to obtain new skills.
On the other side being in debt to Sallie Mae I see how they are making their profits. I have read plenty of stories that are sickening describing the lengths that they will go (such as lobbying government to strip away all consumer protections). I know that every month I stuff money into a cannon and fire it at Sallie Mae and some months none of it even lands in the area of principal so I know they have got to be making sick profits and it makes me want to invest in them to perhaps recapture some of my personal losses at their hands…. it seems like twisted logic as I type this …
I don’t know where I am going with this , I personally blame government more for the Sallie Mae/student loan situation as Sallie is just doing their job (to make shareholders profits). Government is the one that is giving Sallie Mae the rubber stamp to do whatever the hell it wants.
But nothing can really be done until it is more clear what the student loan structure is going to be like going forward. Sallie Mae is not raising a big fuss over proposed changes so it makes me think they have an angle… and with their contributions and lobbying I am sure they do.