The banksters don’t want the government to use its scarce resources more wisely and reduce the cost of delivering legislated student loans to students. They like the cushy income, the captive market brought in young, and the potential default rates of interest and penalty fees. They don’t want the government to pay out less in fees to them, or more in loans to more students if it means they get a smaller piece of a shrinking pie.

Like the Republican Party and those dates you’re well rid of, it’s all about them. The banksters don’t even pretend to argue that they provide a more efficient way to spend tax dollars. They just want their money. To hell the with the students and their loans, and the personal and American futures they would help build.

Also like the Republican Party, such obvious, ruthless, destructive selfishness should be met with a calm reply: “Thanks for the advice, but here’s how we’re gonna do it.”

Congress is the shifty potential ally, with the men and material to change the game. It could promote the interests of those who vote for its members. Or it can continue to do what’s doing now: promote the interests of those who pay their elections and demand in exchange rules and subsidies whose value is orders of magnitude greater than the money exchanged.

It’s a war of attrition in which each side keeps doing what it’s always done, and is getting what it always got. Perhaps blogs can help revise the strategy so that a losing stalemate becomes a war of movement and opportunity.

They have a factory outlet store where they sell the not-so-perfectly shaped beans called Belly Flops!

Someone explain that one to me, please.”

Becuase there is no limit to greed. No comprehension of common good, and of lawabidingness, not a trace.

It is the anthesis of Christianity, and the moneychangers have bought the temple.

i hadn’t seen that one – have actually been debating with myself about whether or not to do more of the hearings lists. the frank/dodd hearings have sucked so very badly, i’d rather spend my time calling for real investigative hearings instead of the stupid kabuki they’ve been orchestrating.

i’m always up for more more stiglitz. that one should be interesting. not long ago simon johnson and lori wallach testified together and i thought my head would explode (unrepentant ex-imfer and public citizen global trade watch together trying to get idiotic congress members to face reality? yikes! i though hell was going to freeze over).

you’ve got me looking forward to a hearing now….

Is this something the new governor just produced or is it a Blago leftover?

fyi - Selise - in the unlikely event you hadn’t seen this

…Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chair of the Joint Economic Committee.

Her next hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, is must-viewing. It will feature Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz; former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson, whose recent piece in the Atlantic Monthly compared the US to third-world kleptocracies, and Thomas Hoenig, the most outspokenly critical of the regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents.

As long as a rather small percentage of citizens can BUY the ability to tell us what are stupid decisions, they are never going to publicly recognize their own stupid decisions. At some point, we as the government are going to have to tell them the truth and then demand some karmic compensation for the stupid decisions.

note to firedogs: that was my first glimpse of Education Secretary Duncan – initial impression was he was a good guy – called NCLB ” a national tragedy” – would love to hear resident educators assessment although it may be too early to tell