[Please pop-off and read the web-page where all the embedded links will work.]
Student loans 'plot' against graduates signals a time for major policy change
"The Guardian last week revealed a secret report commissioned by the government from Rothschild bank, looking at ways in which the student loan book could be made attractive to private investors and sold off. The report is still under active consideration at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and, notably, ministers have failed to deny its contents."
"The Rothschild report, cruelly dubbed 'project hero', shows that from the very beginning of its tuition fees policy, the government has been looking to sell the whole thing off, including pre-2012 loans taken out on quite different terms. Post-2012 loans are unattractive to sell due to the large amount that will never be paid back, while the report points out that the rates of interest on pre-2012 loans offer slim pickings, calculated at the bank of England base rate (currently 0.5%) plus 1% or the retail price index (RPI), whichever is lowest.
In order to incentivise private investors to take on student loans Rothschild recommend either changing the terms for all existing borrowers over the past 15 years, or asking the Treasury to guarantee the difference between present interest rates and an acceptable yield through a euphemistically-named 'synthetic hedge'. What this tells us is that the student loan book is an unsellable asset. The former option would be a gross betrayal of young graduates; the latter option would represent an extraordinarily bad deal for the taxpayer."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2013/jun/17/rothschild-report-student-loans-risks?INTCMP=SRCH
Why is this good news? You may well ask. Well, simply put, what is sauce for the goose...
For the broader picture...
http://rt.com/shows/keiser-report/episode-459-max-keiser-823/Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.