Sunday, July 22, 2012

The Educated Reporter: Student Loan Crisis Needs Congressional Intervention: Consumer Protection Bureau

The Educated Reporter: Student Loan Crisis Needs Congressional Intervention: Consumer Protection Bureau:


Student Loan Crisis Needs Congressional Intervention: Consumer Protection Bureau

Not surprisingly, the repercussions of the nation's student loan debt crisis continue to grow. A new consumer protection agency, in a report to Congress and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, compared private loans to the subprime mortgages which contributed to the housing bubble and the disastrous fallout when it burst.

(For a first-rate overview of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's report, read Libby Nelson piece on Inside Higher Ed.)

In a call with reporters late last week, the bureau's director Richard Cordray said that the findings revealed that "students were yet another group of consumers that were hurt by the boom and bust of the financial crisis ... Too