Today, there are two stories worth reading on the nexus of big finance and education. The first, in The Chronicle of Higher Education, reports that Nelnet — a Nebraska-based lending conglomerate — Sallie Mae, and other lenders will pay fines for defrauding taxpayers out of $1 billion:
The New York Times’ Ron Lieber has an excellent column on the severe hangover left by the cocktail of cheap credit and spiraling college tuitions: the tens of thousands of young people saddled with tens of thousands of dollars of what is, effectively, subprime student loan debt. In some More…
President Obama this morning finalized (sort of) the Democrats’ sweeping health care reforms, signing into law the reconciliation bill that refines the larger reforms he enacted last week. Aside from tweaking the Senate’s version of the health care bill, the reconciliation measure also includes More…
For the second time this week, the House tonight passed a health care reform bill designed to complement the larger reform package that President Obama signed into law Tuesday.
The vote was a technicality. The House had passed the bill Sunday night, sending it over to the Senate. More…
With today’s headlines screaming (perfectly legitimately) about last night’s health reform votes, it’s easy to forget that House lawmakers also passed the most sweeping reforms to hit the nation’s student lending system in decades.
The health care reconciliation bill, while predominately made up of health-focused reforms, More…
Don’t say they’re not on message.
A group of Republicans this afternoon will meet with reporters to protest the Democrats’ plans to eliminate tens of billions of dollars in government subsidies to private companies that lend to students. The Democrats’ bill would have students borrow directly from the More…
David M. Herszenhorn at The New York Times points out a curious thing happening in the midst of the debate over student lending reform: Although the plan to eliminate billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to private lenders originated, by some accounts, with President Bill Clinton, it’s now More…
As Capitol Hill Democrats consider proposals to pull the country out of its huge deficit hole, they’re repeatedly running into a formidable impediment: themselves.
On issues as diverse as health care and student lending, provisions designed to rein in deficit spending have all run smack into the ubiquitous inclination of More…
With a growing number of college grads finding themselves crushed under the weight of their student loan debt, the Obama administration is considering action that could derail the entire student loan industry. Groups who monitor campaign contributions, though, worry that the strength of the industry could block any shot at More…
The Obama administration’s push to phase out subsidies for private student loan companies and replace them with more efficient direct lending from the government is causing some serious agita among big banks that fear lost business, as The New York Times reported last week.
But curiously enough, the large More…
rss