PANDORA’S BOX
EVERYTHING GOT OUT. THE HOPE IS AT THE BOTTOM.
THE ONE-WAY DOOR
The machinery that takes 15 percent of a paycheck is being switched back on
Nearly 10 million borrowers are in default. Treasury could start hiring collectors as soon as next month.
No judge has to sign anything. That is the part most people never learn until a letter reaches their employer.
Forbes reported on Monday that the Education Department is working with the Treasury to hire private debt collection agencies.
The underlying reporting is from The Washington Sun, which cited five sources. Contracting could begin as soon as November.
The pool is large. Nearly 10 million people are in default inside a federal portfolio of $1.7 trillion.
THE STAKES
AJAR
15%
OF DISPOSABLE PAY, WITHOUT A COURT ORDER
→
The rule is 31 U.S.C. 3720D. It requires written notice and a hearing if you ask for one. It does not require a judge.
PAID PARTNERSHIP
Green Coffee Company estate blend
Most coffee pitches start at the shelf. Start at the mill instead.
Green Coffee Company owns 45 farms in Colombia. More than 10,000 acres. Over 10 million trees. Its wet mills run above a million pounds a week, the largest capacity in the country, and this year’s harvest is projected at 5.1 million pounds against 2.3 million last year.
Most of that leaves as green coffee, sold by the container to roasters and traders. Unglamorous, and exactly why the revenue is real rather than projected: $1 million in 2021, $26 million in 2025.
The branded business sits on top. Juan Valdez across U.S. and Canadian retail under exclusive third-party rights. More than 3,000 stores in 21 states. Private label into the U.S. National Parks, Carnival Cruise Line and the UFC.
That order is the whole opportunity. Coffee leaving the dry mill carries about $3.23 of value on an 11-ounce bag. The same bag retails at $13.99. The company already owns nearly every step in between. It simply has not moved much volume up there yet.
So today you are buying the producer, with the brand layer still ahead of it, at $1.15 a share.
$1,000.50 minimum, roughly 870 shares, no accreditation required. Private, unlisted and illiquid, no secondary market, and you can lose the whole position.
Rights apply to retail and institutional sales in the U.S. and Canada (non-cafe business) and are governed by a 10-year agreement to manufacture and distribute the iconic Juan Valdez® brand in the U.S. and Canada. Juan Valdez®, Procafecol S.A., the National Coffee Federation of Colombia, and any of their respective affiliates (collectively, the “Juan Valdez Parties”) are not sponsors, issuers, co-issuers, promoters, guarantors, underwriters, placement agents, or participants in any manner in this investment offering. The Juan Valdez Parties have not reviewed, approved, authorized, endorsed, recommended, or verified this offering, any related offering materials, or any statements made herein, and do not express any view or opinion regarding the merits, risks, or suitability of this investment. Any reference to the “Juan Valdez®” brand or related trademarks is made solely for the limited purpose of describing an existing commercial agreement relating to the manufacture, marketing, and sale of certain coffee products. Such agreement does not extend to, and expressly excludes, any securities offering, fundraising activity, investment program, or capital-raising transaction. Investors should not rely on the existence of any trademark license, brand association, or commercial agreement with the Juan Valdez Parties as an indicator of financial performance, investment quality, creditworthiness, risk mitigation, or likelihood of success of the issuer or this offering. The continuation of any commercial agreement is subject to contractual terms and conditions and may be modified or terminated, and no assurance is given that any such relationship will continue for any period of time. No Juan Valdez Party assumes any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained in this offering, nor for any investment decision made by any investor.
Wages are only one of the taps. The Treasury Offset Program reaches tax refunds, the child tax credit and Social Security.
That last one is why this lands differently after 60. A retired borrower has no paycheck to garnish. The benefit is the paycheck.
On January 16 this year the Education Department paused all of it. Garnishment, refund seizure, benefit offset.
That pause was its own decision, not a law. It never covered the older FFEL loans held by guaranty agencies, which kept garnishing throughout.
The pause had a purpose. The department was rebuilding repayment under the Working Families Tax Cuts Act.
An agreement is already in place underneath it. The Education Department handed its defaulted portfolio to Treasury earlier this year.
What is new is the hiring. Collectors are being lined up now, and nobody expects an announcement before the midterms.
Some officials want the offsets applied to the current tax year. That would reach refunds filed by the April 15 deadline in 2027.
Two things could still slow it. Treasury’s new Defaulted Loans Support Center has to be running properly first.
And Treasury staff reportedly blocked the same effort last year, over what it would do to low-income workers.
One line in the Forbes piece is worth reading twice. None of these agencies is required to make exhaustive efforts to find a borrower first.
Notice can go to a last known address and the clock still runs. Mail that never arrives is still mail that was sent.
There are two ways out of default, and both take months. Rehabilitation runs on a schedule of payments. Consolidation replaces the old loans with a new one.
Credit is the quieter cost. It follows a borrower into a mortgage application, a car loan, even a lease.
FROM OUR PARTNERS
Washington doesn’t have to confiscate your retirement for it to lose purchasing power.
The dollars inside it just have to buy less.
America’s national debt has now blasted past $40 TRILLION.
And the borrowing keeps piling up.
Meanwhile, inflation remains above the Fed’s 2% target, squeezing what every retirement dollar can buy.
So your IRA could still say $300,000… $500,000… even $1 million.
But what happens if those dollars buy far less than you planned for?
That’s the retirement threat millions of Americans may be overlooking.
And it’s one reason investors have turned to what’s being called the “debasement trade”, moving toward scarce assets like gold as concerns over debt, inflation and the dollar grow.
We’ve put together a free guide revealing 3 steps you can consider taking as America’s debt problem grows.
Say the honest part plainly. Nothing has been announced. No contract has been signed. The reporting rests on unnamed sources.
What is not in doubt is the law behind it. Those powers have been sitting there the whole time, waiting to be switched on.
ADVERTISEMENT
Fifteen percent of a paycheck, taken without a judge.
That power sat unused in the statute book for years.
It did not need a new law. It needed a decision.
Washington holds other levers that work the same way.
One of them is how the government values the gold it already owns.
American Alternative Assets calls that a 90-year-old accounting trick, and says it is about to unravel.
Its free guide, The Great Gold Reset, sets out what revaluing that gold would mean for a retirement account.
We are not telling you it will happen. No decision has been announced.
The guide is a reading of a premise, not a forecast.
It costs nothing. You give an email address and it arrives.
EVERY LEAD PASSES BEFORE IT RUNS
The One-Way-Door Test
01
Can it be undone?
Today, yes. Nothing is signed. A garnishment order already sitting with your employer is a different animal.
NOT YET
02
Who is already repositioning?
Treasury, which is lining up contractors now and is not expected to say so until after the vote.
BY NOVEMBER
03
What does being late cost?
Every route out of default is slow. The window closes the day the notice reaches a payroll office.
THE NOTICE
THE MOVE · WHILE THERE IS STILL TIME
Sign in at studentaid.gov and read the status line on every federal loan in your name. Include any Parent PLUS loan you took for a child. Default is a word you can check in a minute.
None of this is announced and no contract is signed. The reporting rests on unnamed sources at two departments.
ALSO GOT LOOSE TODAY
 
Brent pushed back above $110 after fresh attacks on shipping near the Strait of Hormuz. European gas futures moved toward four-year highs.
RESOURCES
 
South Korea’s Kospi rose 2.7 percent to 5,703, recovering Tuesday’s losses as chip and AI shares came back.
WORLD
 
Tesla, Meta and IBM all report after the close today.
LATER
WHAT’S LEFT AT THE BOTTOM
The same law that allows this requires written notice first, and a hearing if you ask. Nobody can take the minute it costs to find out where you stand.
WE WATCH THE BOX.
 
 

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