When the imminent blow up of 50% of the world’s hedge funds get us down we like to troll Yahoo Personal Finance for a good re-centering. Some days you just crave the financial wisdom only an ex-pro volleyball player can provide (Penelope Trunk, the Brazen Careerist).
Scrolling down the page and seeing the latest mug in the “EXPERT OPINION” columns, we were like, “No way, Ali Larter writes a Yahoo Personal Finance column!” It makes sense, especially since her son can tap into ATMs and crash markets by touching a Bloomberg terminal.
To our chagrin, the latest Yahoo EXPERT has never appeared in front of Dawson wearing a whipped cream bikini but is rather Anya Kamenetz (but back me up on the fact that her thumbnail-sized head looks like Ali Larter). Anya, or “AK” as the other Crips call her, is a 26-year old Yale alum who started a column called “Generation Debt” at the Village Voice and rode it into a book deal. It also helps in no way whatsoever that everyone the girl knows is an author, like both her parents.
Her columns are detailed affairs about student loans and other cool forms of crippling debt that we could tell you more about if we could get through them. Unlike Penelope’s work, which makes Highlights Magazine seem like a corporate finance textbook, Anya’s columns make corporate finance textbooks seem like issues of Maxim. I guess Yahoo Personal Finance is just balancing out the universe.
Anya now lives in Brooklyn with her husband and cat, although she is listed as “single” on MySpace. If her cat saw that he’d be pissed. You can check out Anya’s personal website here, and find out that she takes great glamour shots (although the verdict is still out, how is she in person?), has written for every publication ever…published, and get her reaction to 9/11.
We all know the real way to differentiate accomplished 20-somethings is by looking at their reactions to 9/11, each more profound than the last. Going down the line, after 9/11 Dana Vachon started reading “Lord of the Rings,” Chelsea Clinton called for everyone except herself to serve her fellow man and Anya Kamenetz realized right away that the attacks were going to be a total career buzz kill. Here’s Anya, quoted in a 2005 version of the Boston Phoenix:
“The whole dot.com thing has passed,” says Kamenetz, who graduated from Yale seven months after the 9/11 attacks. “There was a feeling among my peers and I that we had gotten a bum deal, sort of. Politically things were going badly, economically things were going badly.”
Stay tuned for more “bum deals” on Yahoo Personal Finance.
Laying Down the Law on Wider College Access [Yahoo Personal Finance]
ANYA KAMENTZ
It’s amazing how useless this post became when I read “…with her husband…”
She says she has a political agenda. As if the world needed another female Yale grad with a political agenda.
more analysis of penelope trunk!! her advice is (perhaps unintentionally) the funniest I’ve ever read.
ba ZING
I just read her article – I weep for America’s youth. We need John Galt.
I also vote for more analysis of Penelope! She and Muffy should have a conversation.
her pic suggests she’s not much above average looking
but she knows enough to find a really good photographer who can play to her strengths.
You pranksters, that’s Jenni Carmichael!!
“It’s only right that those who earn more from their education should pay more back. I hear from far too many students here whose loan burdens are out of whack with their incomes, and who are stuck with snowballing debt and no hope of relief via bankruptcy or any other means, not to believe that it’s a good idea to have a fair repayment structure in place.”
Agree with Chris @ 5:12. This kind of thinking is scary. If private school is prohibitively expensive (it was in my case), you can pay ~25% for an excellent public school education.
The thought of me working in IB after deciding in favor of public school for economic reasons and “paying back” someone’s student loans – the same someone who had to have the private education to Teach for America or work 9-5s for a non-profit for clubbed seals – makes me want to puke.
Who is John Galt?
Amen Chris & JO.
“I swear by my life and my love of it that I will not live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine.”
Wouldn’t you expect some communist rant from some Russian / Eastern European chick called Anya.
The fact that I would have to pay loans for some tree-hugging crunchy dude while he’s out watching some shitty foreign indy flick, and I’m waiting for comments right now makes me hurl also.
Not only the young, the whole nation is on grill.
The solution is Saving, cut off the unnecessary fanciness and endlessly aimless upgrading.
People with not-so-ridiculous (so I don’t have to say low) income: of course you should save and spend according to what you earn.
People with ridiculous paychecks (you know what I am talking about): the old saying of Easy Come Easy Go is always right. Save and spend in moderation so you don’t have to put your multimillion yacht on sale when market is low.
“Who is John Galt?” Indeed.
When I read “Atlas Shrugged” I thought the characters who espoused fairness and sharing were almost caricatures of communists and that they had no relevance to today’s America. Oh how I was wrong.
OMG.
http://www.nnteens.com/galleries/jenni-carmichael/
typical socialist nonsense. if some crunchy chick wants to go dig wells in tanzania, that’s awesome. but don’t make me pay for your yale education. the guy who said, attend a state school, that’s dead on balls accurate (look at michigan, cal, unc). here’s a newsflash: what do you expect to earn when you major in english or sociology at yale, 200k pa?
or how about ROTC? there’s your free ride to yale (and you can honestly give back to your nation).
Keith you going to comment on the new article from our favorite volley-ball playing financial advisor?
http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/careerist/41033
I was an english major, and I am a lawyer now who litigates to save your asses when you idiots screw up.
I make plenty of money.
So.. I am doing just fine. Thanks.
Anon 9:57 thanks for making me go to a porn site at work…..I got sidetracked for hours!
Agreed Anon 11:27… a NSFW would have been nice. Unfortunately the billion servers at work were able to stop me from enjoying whatever is on the site…
if you have a useless major your options are either (1) law school or (2) odd lot. the point is, don’t ask for a handout when you major in english, make $35k and want to live in manhattan.
Agreed Anon 11:27… a NSFW would have been nice. Unfortunately the billion servers at work were able to stop me from enjoying whatever is on the site…
I just wanna FUCK!
I would recommend that Anya read Francisco d’Anconia’s thoughts on money:
http://www.turtletrader.com/atlas_shrugged.html
http://www.slate.com/id/2134007
That Slate article by Daniel Gross sums her up well.
You know, this type of “social safety net” position on college loans is exactly what Ron Paul must have been worried about when he explained why he was against federal involvement in the area of college loans.
He explains his position on college loans to the staff at Google in this video, a stance which might have made any political candidate very unpopular with this crowd.
Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCM_wQy4YVg