Podcast

Description

Across the United States, 45 million borrowers now owe $1.6 trillion in debt for federal loans taken out for college — more than consumers owe on any other debt except mortgages.

For the past two years, beginning as the pandemic spread, the U.S. government has allowed tens of millions of Americans to stop paying back their students loans.

This experiment in debt deferral has had unintended consequences, and poses a dilemma for President Biden.

Guest: Stacy Cowley, a finance reporter for The New York Times.

Transcript