Bailout Bust

How did this happen:

Student loan debt soared to more than $1.5 trillion during the Biden presidency, and the response by Washington was to "forgive" hundreds of billions of these unpaid loans by deadbeat borrowers and let the taxpayers pick up the tab. It was never clear why the universities that charge exorbitant tuitions that have reached more than $75,000 a year at many elite schools shouldn't bear the cost of the program -- but that's another story. Those of us who watched these events unfold predicted that one result of this policy would be that many college graduates would stop paying back their loans. And guess what? Just like clockwork, this headline from Bloomberg recently told the whole story: "Student Loans Drive US delinquency Rate to Highest Since 2020." Gee, who -- except a bunch of head-in-the-sand politicians in Washington -- would have ever thought that forgiving as many people from paying their student loans as possible would increase future nonpayments?

Forgiveness is never free...