<story><title>Obama Forgives Student Debt Of 400,000 Americans</title><url>http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-obama-is-forgiving-the-student-loans-of-nearly-400000-people-2016-04-12</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>readams</author><text>Government-guaranteed loans are a fantastic way to force prices to spiral out of control.  The way student loans were before income-based repayment, we&amp;#x27;d have expected college cost to rise until it meets the lifetime expected benefit of college discounted to the present.&lt;p&gt;With income-based repayment, where your loan balance is forgiven after 20 years, there is no limit to how high it can go.&lt;p&gt;Government-subsidized mortages and mortgage interest deductions have a similarly terrible effect on housing, a basic good that government policy should try to make as cheap as possible.  Instead, government policy is to make it as expensive as possible.</text></comment>
<story><title>Obama Forgives Student Debt Of 400,000 Americans</title><url>http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-obama-is-forgiving-the-student-loans-of-nearly-400000-people-2016-04-12</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jeffdavis</author><text>As with medicine, college is now an industry with third-party payment and no third-party control.&lt;p&gt;In other words, the student (patient) and the university (doctor&amp;#x2F;hospital&amp;#x2F;pharmacy) agree to do business, and the government (insurance company) pays regardless of the price.&lt;p&gt;That obviously creates major price distortions. Expect college to get a lot more expensive before it gets cheaper.</text></comment>