One more thing to add to my rant from yesterday: Congress has been debating whether or not to keep the interest rate on student loans at 3.4%, or to increase it to 6.8%. The standard student loan payoff period is 10 years. Currently, the interest rate the U.S. pays on a 10-year Treasury note is around 1.5%, or near historical lows.
You know, if the U.S. borrowed money at that low interest rate, and then turned around and lent that money out to students at something near that low interest rate, that would put a lot of extra money in people’s pockets due to lower monthly payments. Money that, you know, would get spent. But I guess acting like a giant bank and charging students a 500 basis point markup is also great for the economy.