The debt trap: how student loans became a national catastrophe

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Mitchell, Josh
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English
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Athens Drive Community - Adult Non-Fiction
378.3 MITCH
Cary Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
378.3 MITCH
East Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
378.3 MITCH

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ISBN:
9781501199448

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Grouped Work ID0919eef0-205b-0ced-c860-1a6e7c15d5f4
Grouping Titledebt trap how student loans became a national catastrophe
Grouping Authorjosh mitchell
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2025-08-01 05:08:36AM
Last Indexed2025-08-03 05:17:16AM

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Mitchell, Josh
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Mitchell, Josh
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Cary Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
East Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Eva H. Perry Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
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Morrisville Community - Adult Non-Fiction
North Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Northeast Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Oberlin Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Richard B Harrison - Adult Non-Fiction
Southeast Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
WCPL - Adult Non-Fiction
Wake Forest Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Wendell Community - Adult Non-Fiction
display_description
"In 1982, a new executive at Sallie Mae took home the company's financial documents to review. "You've got to be shitting me," he later told the company's CEO. "This place is a gold mine." Over the next four decades, the student loan industry that Sallie Mae and Congress created blew up into a crisis that would submerge a generation of Americans into $1.5 trillion in student debt. In The Debt Trap, Wall Street Journal reporter Josh Mitchell tells the untold story of the scandals, scams, predatory actors, and government malpractice that have created the behemoth that one of its original architects called a "monster." The tale begins in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik. Afraid that America was falling behind the Soviets in science education, Congress created the first major federal student loan program to enroll more students in college. What followed were a series of well-intentioned government actions that created a cycle of reckless lending and runaway tuition. Easy access to loans allowed colleges to raise tuition to unheard of levels, which in turn led Congress to increase loan limits and interest rates and expand who could borrow. This spiral continued as the private banks that fronted the money made huge profits on interest. "Nobody was pure in this business," one former college president said. As he charts the gripping seventy-year history of student debt in America, Mitchell never loses sight of the countless student victims ensnared by an exploitive system that depends on their debt. Mitchell also draws alarming parallels to the housing crisis in the late 2000s, showing the catastrophic consequences student debt has had on families and the nation's future. Mitchell's character-driven narrative is required reading for anyone wanting to understand the central economic issue of our day.
format_catalog
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format_category_catalog
Books
id
0919eef0-205b-0ced-c860-1a6e7c15d5f4
isbn
9781501199448
last_indexed
2025-08-03T09:17:16.631Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
local_callnumber_catalog
378.3 MITCH
owning_library_catalog
Wake County Public Libraries
owning_location_catalog
Athens Drive Community
Cary Regional
East Regional
Eva H. Perry Regional
Leesville Community
Morrisville Community
North Regional
Northeast Regional
Oberlin Regional
Richard B. Harrison Community
Southeast Regional
Wake Forest Community
Wendell Community
primary_isbn
9781501199448
publishDate
2021
publisher
Simon & Schuster
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
College costs -- United States
Education, Higher -- United States -- Finance
Finance, Personal -- United States
Student loans -- United States
title_display
The debt trap : how student loans became a national catastrophe
title_full
The debt trap : how student loans became a national catastrophe / Josh Mitchell
title_short
The debt trap
title_sub
how student loans became a national catastrophe
topic_facet
College costs
Education, Higher
Finance
Finance, Personal
Student loans

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ils:753258BookBooksFirst Simon & Schuster hardcover editionEnglishSimon & Schuster2021260 pages : 23 cm.

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