Free Republic

There is indeed a student loan crisis. And the numbers show it is entirely the doing of President Obama, with an assist from his supporting cast in the Democrat-run Congress. The crisis has its origins in 2010, when President Obama essentially nationalized the national student lending program by signing a law he had proposed and Congress passed that muscled banks out of the picture as lenders. Banks had been providing government-backed student loans, but Obama, in all of his community organizer wisdom, figured distant government bureaucrats could do it better than bankers and save taxpayers money. It’s laughable, sure, but...

On April 15 Tax Day, Americans paid about the same amount of income tax as total student loans outstanding. The St. Louis Federal Reserve on the same day published a report titled ‘Student Loan Delinquency: A Big Problem Getting Worse?' The Fed has determined that of the $1.3 trillion in non-bankruptcy-dischargeable student loans, the delinquency rate for students in repayment is over 27 percent. With tuition at the University of California and other top schools growing faster than inflation, student loan defaults are skyrocketing. Prior published student loan reports have stated that the “30+ days delinquency rate for all student...

rresponsibility: A new report finds that 27.3% of student loans are delinquent. Why does this matter? Because thanks to President Obama, about $1 trillion dollars of student loan debt is owed to the federal government. Obama keeps trying to portray the student loan crisis as a problem suffered by students burdened by a mountain of debt when they graduate, and who are unable to make enough money to pay it back. But that's not the real crisis. First, average student loan debt is only a little over $20,000. A student who gave up his $5-a-day Starbucks habit could pay off...

With Congress and the Obama administration focused on Monday’s deadline to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling, it is an apt time to examine the larger consequences of America’s staggering student loan debt load. Even as mortgage, credit card and other consumer debt levels have decreased, today’s students carry unprecedented — and growing — debt burdens. With outstanding student loan debt in the first quarter of 2013 totaling a record $986 billion, the impact on individuals is disturbing. But add to that the fact that this debt load threatens the nation’s very ability to compete in the global economy,...

In 2006, the underpinnings of the American financial system began to crack from a speculative bubble in the countryÂ’s housing market. Fueled by irrational exuberance in which homeowners believed their home prices would rise forever, this was made worse by Main Street and Wall Street, both of whom repackaged mortgage loans for sale to everyday investors through a process called securitization. ThatÂ’s right, this was a multipronged problem, not the hell-bent desires of a few financial fat cats, as Occupy Wall Street would have you believe. When the bubble burst and home prices began to decline, this not only hurt...