In recent years, the Brooking Institution published a series of papers as part of its Future of the Middle Class Initiative. In a 2020 paper, Brookings defined the Middle Class as the middle 60 percent of the household income distribution–“not poor, but not prosperous either.” How much income must a family have to be considered middle … Read more
Mardis Gras parades are an ancient tradition in New Orleans, going back to the eighteenth century. Social clubs called krewes sponsor these parades, and krewe members throw trinkets called throws at parade-goers. Typically, a throw is a necklace of plastic beads, but krew members also throw toys, small stuffed animals, and plastic souvenir cups. Every year, Louisianians … Read more
“It’s good to be shifty in a new country,” Huckleberry Finn observed in Mark Twain’s most famous novel. What does it mean to be shifty? I think Twain meant that people should be cautious in a strange environment and suspicious about entrusting their safety and wellbeing to strangers–not to mention their pocketbooks. You will be … Read more
Surely you remember Woodie Allen’s famous observation: “I’d never join a club that would allow a person like me to become a member.” That’s kind of like the situation with college admissions. Some schools are admitting new students even though they didn’t apply! A couple of companies have launched services that allow college shoppers to … Read more
In March 2020, the Department of Education suspended required payments on federal student loans due to the COVID crisis. Unfortunately, the feds extended the pause six times, meaning that most borrowers have not made student-loan payments for more than two years. Nearly four out of five borrowers benefited from the pause on their student-loan obligations … Read more
National Public Radio (NPR) recently ran a poll to determine what Americans think about student-loan forgiveness. More than half the respondents favor President Biden’s plan to forgive $10,000 in student debt per borrower. Among people with outstanding student loans, 84 percent support Biden’s debt relief plan, and 68 percent want the Biden administration to forgive … Read more
President Biden signed the Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment and Technical Corrections Act yesterday, and congressional leaders pat themselves on the back. According to Senator Chuck Grassley, one of the Senate bill’s sponsors, the new law will remove some hurdles to the bankruptcy process and “assist small businesses and working families to weather financial hardship and emerge … Read more
President Biden promised college borrowers $10,000 in student-loan forgiveness when he was on the campaign trail. He has yet to deliver on that promise. Some progressives urge Biden to forgive more student debt. The NAACP said, “$10,000 is not enough, We’re calling on our elected officials to cancel federal student loan debt with no means-testing.” … Read more
President Biden is flirting with a massive student-loan forgiveness plan–$10,000 in debt relief for 97 percent of all college borrowers. The Washington Post, perhaps America’s most progressive newspaper, urges him not to pull the trigger. “Biden could ease the burden on the genuinely disadvantaged in a number of more targeted ways,” the WP editorial board … Read more
Earlier this week, the Department of Education wiped away all student debt owed by more than a million former students who attended one of the Corinthian Colleges campuses. The cost? About $5.8 billion. Since his administration began, President Biden has approved $25 billion in loan forgiveness for 1.3 million student borrowers. That’s a lot of … Read more
