The Debt Trap
How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Todd Ross
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By:
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Josh Mitchell
About this listen
AN NPR AND NEW YORK POST BEST BOOK OF 2021
From acclaimed Wall Street Journal reporter Josh Mitchell, the “devastating account” (The Wall Street Journal) of student debt in America.
In 1981, 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 in $1.5 trillion in student debt. In The Debt Trap, Wall Street Journal reporter Josh Mitchell tells the “vivid and compelling” (Chicago Tribune) 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.”
As he charts the “jaw-dropping” (Jeffrey Selingo, New York Times bestselling author of Who Gets in and Why) seventy-year history of student debt in America, Mitchell never loses sight of the countless student victims ensnared by an exploitative 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 “necessary reading” (The New York Times) for anyone wanting to understand the central economic issue of our day.
©2021 Josh Mitchell. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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In just over three years, real estate giant Tishman Speyer and its partner, BlackRock, lost billions of investors' dollars on a single deal. In Other People's Money, Charles V. Bagli, the New York Times reporter who first broke the story of the sale of Stuyvesant Town - Peter Cooper Village takes listeners inside the most spectacular failure in real estate history, using this single deal as a lens to see how and why the real estate crisis happened.
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Solid
- By BryanW on 05-22-24
By: Charles V. Bagli
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Hostile Takeover
- Resisting Centralized Government's Stranglehold on America
- By: Matt Kibbe
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Hostile Takeover is a rebellious challenge to the "upper management" of government, who are choking American prosperity and liberty. Matt Kibbe exposes the privileged collusion of Washington insiders - and maps out a proven plan for how to return power from the self-appointed "experts" back to the people. Dubbed "one of the Tea Party's masterminds" by Newsweek, Kibbe reveals how grassroots citizens can and will check the federal behemoth and restore the American enterprise.
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An amazing book from an interesting perspective
- By Aaron on 12-28-12
By: Matt Kibbe
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Bought and Paid For
- The Unholy Alliance Between Barack Obama and Wall Street
- By: Charles Gasparino
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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According to business reporter Charles Gasparino, President Obama is faking his outrage at Wall Street, and his calls for new policies to rein in banks that are "too big to fail" are just pabulum. In reality, Obama has climbed into bed with Wall Street CEOs, giving them what they want so they will support his liberal, big-government agenda.
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Revealing and Convincing
- By Walter on 10-24-11
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Profiles in Corruption
- Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite
- By: Peter Schweizer
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In Profiles in Corruption, Schweizer offers a deep-dive investigation into the private finances and secrets deals of some of America’s top political leaders. And, as usual, he doesn’t disappoint, with never-before-reported revelations that uncover corruption and abuse of power - all backed up by a mountain of corporate documents and legal filings from around the globe. Learn about how they are making sweetheart deals, generating side income, bending the law to their own benefits, using legislation to advance their own interests, and much more.
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Enlightening & Horrifying!!
- By Kay Lo on 01-22-20
By: Peter Schweizer
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Who Stole My Pension?
- How You Can Stop the Looting
- By: Robert T. Kiyosaki, Edward Siedle
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s estimated that there are over 50 million pensioners - in the United States alone. Like the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy, Germany and many other countries around the world are all in big trouble when it comes to the solvency of their pension funds. Who Stole My Pension? was written to give them guidance, resources, and tools so they can take action...and stop the looting.
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Very Eye Opening
- By Matt on 01-12-22
By: Robert T. Kiyosaki, and others
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Plutocrats
- The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else
- By: Chrystia Freeland
- Narrated by: Allyson Ryan
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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There has always been some gap between rich and poor in this country, but in the last few decades what it means to be rich has changed dramatically. Alarmingly, the greatest income gap is not between the 1 percent and the 99 percent, but within the wealthiest 1 percent of our nation-as the merely wealthy are left behind by the rapidly expanding fortunes of the new global super-rich. Forget the 1 percent; Plutocrats proves that it is the wealthiest 0.1 percent who are outpacing the rest of us at break-neck speed.
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Good Storytelling but ... analysis is "eh'
- By Susan on 11-04-12
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The Liberal Invasion of Red State America
- By: Kristin B. Tate
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Progressive upper-middle-class urbanites are deserting expensive liberal meccas like New York and San Francisco and flocking to traditionally red states like Colorado, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Texas. The result is a sudden, confusing purpling of small-town America. School boards and local governments are being reorganized around the progressive agendas of pushy transplants. Neighborhoods are becoming unrecognizable. And the implications for future Congressional and presidential elections are staggering.
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Interesting and back up with facts
- By Jason on 01-23-20
By: Kristin B. Tate
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That Used to Be Us
- How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back
- By: Thomas L. Friedman, Michael Mandelbaum
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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America has a huge problem. It faces four major challenges, on which its future depends, and it is failing to meet them. In That Used to Be Us, Thomas L. Friedman, one of our most influential columnists, and Michael Mandelbaum, one of our leading foreign policy thinkers, analyze those challenges - globalization, the revolution in information technology, the nation's chronic deficits, and its pattern of energy consumption - and spell out what we need to do now to rediscover America and rise to this moment.
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We have met the enemy and it is us.... Pogo
- By Soudant on 09-16-11
By: Thomas L. Friedman, and others
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JFK and the Reagan Revolution
- A Secret History of American Prosperity
- By: Lawrence Kudlow, Brian Domitrovic
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Who invented supply-side economics - the idea that cutting tax rates can result in more growth, more prosperity at all income levels, and even more tax revenue flowing into the IRS? Most people would credit the economic team that advised Ronald Reagan in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But in fact supply-side economics came of age two decades earlier. And the first president who embraced it was one of the biggest icons of the Democratic Party - John F. Kennedy.
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Turn the speed up to 1 1/2 to 2 times
- By B. MIDDLETON on 09-15-16
By: Lawrence Kudlow, and others
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Shaky Ground
- The Strange Saga of the US Mortgage Giants
- By: Bethany McLean
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 3 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2008 the US Treasury put Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a life-support state known as "conservatorship" to prevent their failure - and worldwide economic chaos. The two companies, which were always controversial, have become a battleground. Today, Fannie and Freddie are profitable again but still in conservatorship. Their profits are being redirected toward reducing the federal deficit, which leaves them with no buffer should they suffer losses again.
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Details on the Culture and History of the GSEs
- By Jose on 10-15-15
By: Bethany McLean
What listeners say about The Debt Trap
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- MR JOHN PUGH
- 06-08-24
The history of education debt
All this talk nowadays about education debt but how did we get here? This book covers the need of higher education and the policies that got us here and how we might solve the problem. I don’t believe in just forgiveness and that didn’t change after listening to this book but it does help me make a more informed decision and other options available.
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- April Tarbox
- 04-07-24
Unbiased and well researched
The writer takes a historical fact driven approach while also using case studies to prove how historical policies and free market have allowed runaway price hikes and a spiraling debt disaster. I’ve dealt with a spouses Sallie Mae loan in the early 2000’s and related to some of the stories. When I borrowed myself, I steered clear of Sallie Mae. However, government loans prove no better for me. This book has unbiased historical timeline of student loan policies having impact on rising college costs that are out of control. It makes me feel that student loan debt will eventually impoverish society as a whole if the system remains unchecked and unregulated.
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- William G. Stuart
- 02-26-22
An Excellent History of Student Debt
Student debt is one of the most contentious topics in today's political debates. People on one side of the issue want to eliminate much or all student debt because they believe that students were essentially hoodwinked into taking out loans with promises of higher future income that often didn't materialize. People on the other side argue for personal responsibility, noting that many people make bad financial decisions (homes that lose value, cars that don't last beyond payments, investing in a business that fails) and proposing that all debtors assume responsibility for their obligations.
This book provides some excellent perspective. It delivers a history of government involvement in (whether regulating, encouraging, or underwriting) student loans for post-secondary education. It documents the cozy relationship between the federal government and campus financial-aid offices in encouraging students and their families to borrow more and more to attend the school of the students' choice. It explains how the Obama Administration encourage everyone collecting unemployment benefits during the 2008-09 recession to borrow money to go back to school to learn new vocational and professional skills.
Do you want to be armed with the historical facts to understand and participate in the debate over whether to discharge student debt? (Note: I don't use the term "forgive" because that implies that the party to whom money is owed is willing to take the hit for non-payment, whereas in this situation the taxpayers, not the politicians, will pay the bill.) If so, you'll have a hard time understanding and contributing if you don't grasp the information in this book.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-20-21
Great great great
As a person who pay on student loans over a period of years, now I am aware the problem is not me but the greediness of universities and government. Shame on the people we are supposed to trust.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Chuck
- 12-05-21
Relevant and to the point
Good to see the whole story. Bankers and big whigs got paid billions to snowball the size of the tuitions and loans into grotesque colossus situations. All of this is many times over in excess of what even the most responsible and tight budgeted people could possibly ever pay in a lifetime.
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- Eve
- 06-06-23
A must read for all future college students and parents
I had no idea how systemic and complex the college debt is in this country. It’s alarming and concerning what awaits us if this isn’t corrected immediately. I learned a great deal from this well researched and outlined book. I will be recommending this book.
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- Chris J. Mcdonald
- 11-20-21
stay out a debt at all costs
read this before taking student loans. share it with people considering it. Definitely a good read.
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-09-23
I had no idea!
Having graduated in 1989 with a small loan balance, I was fortunate to pay no more than $81 a month for 10 years to repay my student loans. I never understood what the issue was with the student debt crisis until a coworker who graduated in 2017 explained how debt was impacting her life. I began to ask other individuals of various ages if they still had debt. I was quite surprised at the number of people over 50 years old who had very large balances remaining because they were barely covering their interest payments. I sought out more information and found this wonderfully informative book. I was fascinated and consumed it within two days. The narrator was well-suited for communicating non-fiction information. The book read like a novel, with no dry spells boring the audience with lists of facts and figures that put you to sleep. Highly recommend this book if you know nothing of the realities of the school debt situation.
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- Luke Hacherl
- 08-01-23
Enlightening and discouraging
A really informative read - highly encourage people to listen. There are times when it can get a bit repetitive with the stories of individual borrowers, but that does provide a human element to this massively corrupt system.
No matter your political orientation, this book should solidify 3 thoughts.
1. Colleges need more responsibility and “skin in the game” to charge students exorbitant tuition. No student loan forgiveness will stop this from happening again
2. Privatizing profits and socializing losses is NOT how a free market should work.
3. We have failed the American people and those 35 and under. This entire system needs reform and change
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- Richard Spitaleri Jr.
- 02-14-23
Not a bad read….
Interesting back story of how the modern student loans came to be but I didn’t learn as much as I expected. And frankly would have liked to learn more about the back room dealing and less about the mundane anecdotes the author spends excessive time on. Expected to learn about how the student loan industry benefited from LIBOR manipulation but it’s not even mentioned. Author also leaves out any mention of the heavy hand Joe Biden played in creating the mess. Still a worthwhile read if you have a particular interest in the subject. If not, skip it.
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