News
National Journal | If You Thought the Fiscal Cliff Was Bad, Wait Until This Year’s Debt-Ceiling Showdown
In a week filled with landmark Supreme Court decisions and significant movement in the Senate on overhauling immigration laws, it’s hard to wrap one’s mind around the prospect of yet another budget battle. Yet lurking on the other side of the August recess are more fiscal deadlines and potential chaos, culminating in the need to increase the debt ceiling, probably in October or November.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Politico | The student loan debt perfect storm
With Congress and the Obama administration focused on Monday’s deadline to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling, it is an apt time to examine the larger consequences of America’s staggering student loan debt load.
Washington Post | The left needs to get real on Medicare, Social Security and the deficit
There is a rising chorus on the left, most recently articulated in an op-ed Monday by Neera Tanden and Michael Linden [“Deficits are not destiny”] of the Center for American Progress, that our fiscal conversation should be declared over and plans for meaningful entitlement reforms mothballed.
WSJ | What's Really 'Immoral' About Student Loans
Unless Congress acts, interest rates for government subsidized student loans will double to 6.8% from 3.4% on July 1. In May, House Republicans passed a bill that would index rates on new loans to the rate on 10-year Treasurys (currently about 2.6%), plus 2.5 percentage points, with an 8.5% cap. But with little Democratic support in the Senate, that bill is dead in the water.
Mercatus | The Federal Fiscal Predicament: What Seems Better Is Actually Worse
Of late there has been a great amount of discussion of whether federal deficit reduction should remain a national policy priority. While bipartisan fiscal watchdog groups like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget continue to argue that it should be, there have been plenty to argue that it should not. Some of the latter have even suggested that the deficit problem is now essentially under control, and that arguments to contain further federal debt accumulation serve a “political calculus” rather than a substantive need.
NBER | Loans for Higher Education: Does the Dream Come True?
This paper analyzes the impact of student loans for higher education on enrollment, dropout decisions, and earnings. We investigate the massive State Guaranteed Loan (SGL) program implemented in Chile in 2006. Our empirical analysis is based on the estimation of a sequential schooling decision model with unobserved heterogeneity.
