Sometimes it's not easy to read about how greed ruined this country, making profit the only thing that matters.
A splendid book, though. Well-written, honest and sincere.

THE DEBT TRAP by Josh Mitchell provides significant historical perspective on "How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe." Concerns about debt levels are certainly in the news: Mitchell, an award-winning reporter for The Wall Street Journal, co-authored a front page story this week about law school debt and wrote another recent article about the former chief executive of Sallie Mae. In his new book, Mitchell traces the government's involvement in student loans from the G.I. Bill to more recent times. He points out that "average tuition and room and board at four-year private colleges has risen nearly 800 percent since 1980, more than five times the rate of inflation." Acknowledging that well-intentioned actions often have consequences, Mitchell advocates for reforms like forgiving interest on student loans, making four-year colleges put up their own money, and making community college truly free. Since this is more policy-based than guidance for individuals, the text seems a bit complex for our students, although those researching the topic will benefit from Mitchell's notes and bibliography.

Wall Street Journal article links:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/law-school-student-debt-low-salaries-university-miami-11627991855?page=1 https://www.wsj.com/articles/al-lord-profited-when-college-tuition-rose-he-is-paying-for-it-11627048831?page=1

Recently CEO of Sallie Mae Al Lord realised how much tuitions have risen over the decades when he was paying for his grandkids. This book is a story of that process. Imagine the monkey and figting cats story but with a twist where there is one cat and two monkeys who keep takign their share. with profiles of real people, this is a very accessible story.

The Debt Trap is a quick but thorough history of federal financial aid in the United States that uncovers some of the history and politics that have resulted in the complex system that exists today. I work in higher education and consider myself well-versed in the current system, but I was completely unaware of the machinations and greed that serve as the foundation for the federal financial aid program today.

Josh Mitchell’s book stands out because of the access he has to some of the key individuals who were involved in the creation and manipulation of the federal aid system. At a critical point in the expansion of higher education, key individuals and the federal government itself opted for a model - student loans - that would turn a profit and push higher education to be perceived as a private good rather than a public one. What’s surprising is how little critical thought appeared to be put into the early financial aid system when one considers how large an impact is has had in creating the United States’ unique and troubled financial model.

Mitchell’s book moves quickly and his storytelling keeps the book interesting. It reminds me a lot of The Big Short by Michael Lewis. Ultimately, Mitchell does a solid job of telling this history and identifying key points that have had an outsized impact on the evolution of the federal financial aid system and, more specifically, federal student loans and parent plus loans.

My one critique is that, oddly, at the end of The Debt Trap, Mitchell seems to dive unexpectedly into his own personal opinions about whether higher education should be a public good and funded by the government. There was no real basis in the book for this to pop up unexpectedly in the conclusion and the personal/political opinion just seemed to cheapen the excellent writing and storytelling up to that point. It was odd because I really enjoyed the book, but it left a bad taste in my mouth and is one of the final things that a reader comes across. Regardless of personal opinions on this matter, I enjoyed The Debt Trap because it was largely free of the politicizes rhetoric that dominates news coverage and social media. To end this book with an unnecessary and unwanted personal opinion from the author that was fairly removed from the actual content and style of the book was just a bit disappointing. Still I’d recommend this book to others interested in higher education, finance, and U.S. history.

The Debt Trap by Josh Mitchell is a comprehensive view of the role of student debt in today’s society. After a detailed review of the history of the program,Mitchell connects the increase in college tuition with the availability of student loans. Through personal stories of individual borrowers, we see how for many the burden of student loans is borne by people in all walks in life with little hope of relief and holding them back from true economic mobility. This is an important book for all but especially potential students and their families.

I went back to school in 2005 while I was home with my two oldest children. I took out just enough to pay for my schooling through a private Wisconsin university that offered an online degree program. When I graduated, I had $28,000 in loans. Flash forward 8 years of paying over $500 a month ($6000 a year) and I still had over $26,000 in loans. If my mother-in-law had not died and left my husband an inheritance, we’d still be paying on the loans. Which is why we’ve always taught the children that they should pick one of the two local universities or the technical college, stay at home, and get their degrees the less costly way. Sadly, our oldest has not heeded our pleas and is planning to go to a public university across the state. We’ve saved some money for her schooling, but not enough to cover her five year program. I worry about the debt load she is going to take on.

Which is why, when NetGalley and Simon and Schuster offered me The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe to read in exchange for an honest review, I gladly accepted. The book will be released to the general public August 3, 2021.

It really all began after World War II, when the G.I. Bill provided each veteran with unemployment checks, $500 a year for college tuition, and loan guarantees to buy homes. While many women served in the military, the powers that be labeled their units civilian, so there were no G.I. benefits for them.

Then in 1957, Sputnik launched and Americans were scared out of their minds of Soviet dominance. Lyndon Johnson looked back fondly on the loan he was given to go to college; it helped make him who he was. He believed if the United States could make college affordable, Americans could beat the “Commies”. It was then, as a member of Congress, that the first federal student loan program started.

Of course, the easy access to loans meant that colleges could raise their tuition at rates that exceeded inflation. So what did Congress do? They increased loan limits and interest rates and let more people borrow money. Private banks that were loaning the money to students made huge profits on the interest paid by former students.

At the same time, Congress made it harder and harder for borrowers to discharge their loans. In 1976, they made it difficult to get out of debts through bankruptcy, but still possible. In 1997, the legislation they passed makes it nearly impossible to get out of paying federal student loans. In 2005, Sallie Mae backed a bill that blocked student borrowers from declaring bankruptcy with their private student loans. Shockingly, during the 2008 meltdown of the economy, Sallie Mae was the first bailout of the financial crisis.

The Debt Trap is an interesting history of how we got where we are today, and offers anecdotal stories at the beginning and the end of the book. There’s no easy answer to the financial aid crisis in our country, which now tops $1.5 TRILLION. Universities keep raising tuition and housing rates beyond the rate of inflation, and lenders are raising the interest rates and loan amounts for borrowers. Something has to give, or as a country, we’re going to be collectively in a world of hurt.

Before You Talk About The Student Loan Problem, Read This Book. Here, Mitchell does a phenomenal job of going from the very beginning - before World War I even - and showing just how the student loan problem grew from a well-intentioned idea into the massive debt bomb that we are now struggling with at all levels. Other than one short, couple of pages - if that - section near the end, Mitchell keeps all personal ideas and politics out of the narrative, instead focusing on as objective a reporting of the events as they unfolded as I've ever seen. Indeed, there are only two things that I can think to ding him on at all here, and neither one quite warrants a star reduction:

1) Throughout the narrative, particularly once his timeline gets into the 1990s and 2000s eras, Mitchell doesn't account for the rise of State-sponsored lottery-funded scholarship programs. Though upon a bit of research, it seems that these only exist primarily in the Southeast: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia. Though I've lived in three of those States and had my college funded by Georgia's HOPE Scholarship - it is at least plausible that anyone living outside of those States, or without close friends or family in them, has never heard of these programs. (And yet even with HOPE, I still managed to amass a $20K student debt load that had ballooned to nearly $40K before I began actively repaying it - upon threat of legal action - largely due to exactly the forces Mitchell describes in this text, but mostly because I was an idiotic 18yo and it was "free money". Though I'm proud to note that as of this moment, I have less than the various forgiveness amounts that are being bandied about in DC - which Mitchell also covers, in a near up-to-the-minute fashion, even 2 months before publication of this book. An amount that I *will* pay off before the current suspension of interest - signed by President Trump and extended by President Biden - expires, currently slated for less than two months after this book is published.)

2) The Bibliography is a bit scant at only about 15% of the text, though there is a decent portion of the book - focusing on a singular case study in recurring episodes throughout the narrative - where Mitchell conducted extensive interviews and examinations of the relevant documents personally.

Overall truly an excellent, objective look at the history and many factors that have created today's student loan problem. And as GI Joe once said, "knowing is half the battle". Very much recommended.