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At first, the University of Chicago economist didn’t think credit card regulation could possibly work. “I went into the project with this sort of conventional wisdom that well-intentioned regulators would force down fees and that other fees and charges would increase in response,” explained Neale Mahoney, of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
College is the gateway to the middle class for most young people, but the price has never been higher. And a new study shows that New Jersey has actually exacerbated the student debt crisis by shifting the costs of college onto students and families.
According to the national think tank Demos, funding for higher education in New Jersey has dropped by 17 percent since 2006. That has forced every public college and university in the state to raise tuition and fees, far outpacing financial aid packages.
Last Thursday, while fast food workers walked out on strike across the US and around the world, another group of stakeholders in the industry was making a similarly direct statement about the way these companies do business.
There is a tendency among elite opinion makers to believe that debt accrued while gaining a college degree is “good debt” that isn’t problematic because, as the thought goes, those with college degrees tend to make enough money to recoup their debt over a lifetime. Student debt is supposedly an equalizer—a way for students to gain access to credit in order to get a degree that will give them an equal chance to enter the middle class and achieve the American Dream.
Here's a piece of good news in the fight to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour: Walmart's U.S. president, Bill Simon, said last week that the nation's largest employer, will not oppose such an increase.
Activists want to put the brakes on CEO Don Thompson's multimillion dollar pay package. Health advocates are petitioning LeBron James to stop peddling McDonald's junk food to kids.
“Did you know millions of Americans live with debt they can not control? That’s why I’ve developed this unique new program for managing your debt. It’s called, Don’t Buy Stuff You Can’t Afford.”
When failed Republican presidential candidate and multimillionaire asset-stripper Mitt Romney said this week that he supported an increase in the minimum federal wage to US$10.10 ($11.63), as advocated by President Barack Obama, you knew the sounds of discontent from America's growing underclass must have penetrated the hallowed sanctuaries of the very rich. Not that Obama's proposal, the Minimum Wage Fairness Act, went anywhere. It was blocked by Senate Republicans last month and the wage remains at US$7.25 an hour.