/townhall/ - Townhall

>>15145
Given my academic background and work experience, my first instinct is to look at the student loan crisis from a straightforwardly economic perspective.

Any financial instrument that's an asset, whether we're talking about a group of bonds, a collection of stocks, a couple of accounts receiving loan payments, or whatever else, can be bought directly by the U.S. government for the purposes of regular maintenance, like when it comes to doing anything that you'd want the state to do.

There's really nothing, as far as I can tell, keeping the executive branch from simply buying up between 50% to 100% of the student loan related instruments in the U.S. and just sitting on them as assets. Not bothering to collect any money at any point, with people being able to pay everything back basically whenever. Or, frankly, the government could just discard all of those assets. Something like a grand write-off. Honestly, I would want this to happen were I in any way a part of the government.

>>15147
The leftwing bias of most of higher ed is finally starting to bite it.  Republicans have noticed that most profs and academic departments are quite hostile to Republicans and right-wing ideas.

>>15147
See *Biden v. Nebraska*, 600 U.S. 477 (2023). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biden_v._Nebraska

Summary from ChatGPT:
"""
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan was unconstitutional because it exceeded the authority granted to the executive branch under existing laws. Here are the key reasons cited in the ruling:

1. **Separation of Powers**:
  - The Supreme Court determined that the executive branch did not have the unilateral authority to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt without explicit approval from Congress. This was viewed as a violation of the separation of powers, as such a sweeping action requires legislative approval.

2. **Major Questions Doctrine**:
  - The court invoked the *major questions doctrine*, which holds that federal agencies must have clear congressional authorization to take actions of vast economic and political significance. The justices ruled that the law cited by the Biden administration—the HEROES Act of 2003—did not explicitly grant the authority to implement such widespread debt cancellation.

3. **The HEROES Act Interpretation**:
  - The Biden administration relied on the HEROES Act, which allows the Secretary of Education to modify or waive certain provisions of student financial aid programs during national emergencies. The Court found that the act was intended to address temporary relief for borrowers affected by emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, not to authorize broad debt forgiveness.

4. **Impact on the National Economy**:
  - The Court argued that canceling up to $430 billion in student loans represented a significant policy decision with substantial economic implications. It concluded that such a measure must be explicitly debated and approved by Congress, not decided by the executive branch alone.

The decision highlighted the limitations of presidential powers, emphasizing that major policy initiatives require clear legislative backing. Critics of the ruling argued that the decision restricted the government's ability to respond to crises, while supporters viewed it as a necessary check on executive overreach.
"""

>>15148
Yes, for the federal government to just seize any financial entity of any kind requires a hell of a lot of things to be true in the first place in order to make it clear that some special circumstances apply. Otherwise, one ought to respect the way in which a free market with private property rules works. That makes sense to me as well.

Otherwise, naturally, America would become like modern China and Russia in which those in the legislature can just straight up steal a company that they personally want to have, based on nothing other than "Gimme!". Or anybody else in the government doing whatever the hell that they want, with regular people having no sense of there being a rule-of-law that applies fairly. I think Iran also isn't much different either.

The most reasonable thing would be the most rational thing, as stated in >>15147 in detail, with Congress and the executive branch just passing ordinary laws that allow student loan related financial instruments to simply be bought fair-and-square.