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Monday, September 19, 2011

All Education Matters: AEM's Response to FreakOnomics: Justin Wolfer's "Forgive Student Loans? Worst Idea Ever."

All Education Matters: AEM's Response to FreakOnomics: Justin Wolfer's "Forgive Student Loans? Worst Idea Ever.":

AEM's Response to FreakOnomics: Justin Wolfer's "Forgive Student Loans? Worst Idea Ever."

Over at FreakOnomics, Justin Wolfers is arguing that the call to forgive student loans is a bad idea. The piece is response to a recent petition drive by Signon.org. The argument in favor of student loan forgiveness has been espoused by many and for several years. In my view, the strongest argument thus far was made by economist Zeus Yiamouyiannis - that's why I included references to his work in my piece about Obama's Jobs Speech. While Yiamouyiannis was not writing specifically about student loan debt forgiveness in "Endgame: When Debt is Fraud, Debt Forgiveness is the Last and Only Remedy," his theories for a debt jubilee certainly apply. So, Mr. Wolfers, there are probably a few economists, like Yiamouyiannis, who would support this "idiotic idea." Yowser. Your piece is poorly researched.

But why exactly does Wolfers think this particular idea being promoted by Signon.org, which, mind you, isn't