Attention Economy


Friday, July 29, 2016

Student Debt Bubble and the US Financial Sector

The US student debt bubble is a study in financial dysfunction by Rana Foroohar (FT Op-ed):
Foroohar notes:
“In many ways, the student debt crisis chimes with Mr Sanders’ other bugbear: the subprime crisis of 2008. Many of the same factors are in play: a cost bubble (the price of college has increased by over 1100 per cent in the past three decades); vulnerable borrowers paying above-market rates (student loan prices, fixed by the government, have not fallen despite near zero real interest rates); corruption (scandals involving Pell Grants, subsidies for low-income students, have been rife); conflicts of interest between educators and regulators (which are predictably understaffed and underfunded); and a victim-blaming mentality when it all goes wrong.”