Forget the Banks, Help Students

President Barack Obama's new ideas for direct federal lending to college students seem well-founded. Apparently, the banks that are making most student loans currently are earning healthy profits due to taxpayer money subsidizing the lending process. Check out a relevant video here: http://my.barackobama.com/StudentLoans.

As a quick note, nearly all college students who accept loans have absolutely no visibility of the process, nor do we think to question it. We simply understand that money is coming from somewhere to get us through the next semester, and we'll deal with the rest later. Not until the first notification of payment due arrives does an interest in Subsidized Direct Loans vs. Unsubsidized Direct Loans, etc. arise...