Academic

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE? Higher education?s price-earnings ratio looks like Nevada housing circa 20?

By Glenn Reynolds

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE? Higher education’s price-earnings ratio looks like Nevada housing circa 2007. “The financial data are making a college education tougher and tougher to defend. If we were to follow the lead of college marketing departments and treat tuition as an investment, what price-earnings ratio–or P/E–would we assign to it? Unlike a traditional stock, both the price and the earnings are fairly opaque (a warning signal in and of itself), but let’s make some ballpark assumptions. . . . And let’s keep something very important in mind: A college education contains a risk factor that no stock or bond does: zero liquidity. For good or for ill, you’re stuck with it. You can sell a security back to the market, but you can’t sell your degree back. Every college in the country hangs out the same invisible sign: No Refunds. And things are only going to get worse.”

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on December 18, 2010 (boomark / email).