The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars | 165 ratings

Price: 16.4

Last update: 01-29-2025


About this item

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.


Top reviews from the United States

  • John A.
    5.0 out of 5 stars great read
    Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2024
    Great overview of higher education and the current debt crisis. A good read for anyone interested in the topic and why it is happening today
  • jbdmd
    5.0 out of 5 stars Plenty of blame to go around
    Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2021
    A very detailed and referenced analysis of the student debt debacle. Despite the depth of detail it remains very readable and is not at all tedious. At the end, in the conclusion section, the author looks to the roots of the problem and concludes that the basic problem was good intentions gone awry and the creation of perverse incentives via moral hazard. All true in terms of mechanism but not the core issue in terms of ultimate causation. The problem is one of philosophy. In this case the idea that Everyone SHOULD have the chance go to college based on the idea of the collective good of society. One must ask the following: " If 50% of the population has an IQ at or below the median of 100 then how can college (true college level work) be for "everybody"? The author himself hints at this unpleasant issue in his discussion of for-profit law schools accepting low LSAT students just to get the money from tuition. In addition, the availability of loans pulled people away from the types of apprentice training programs by private companies that could have resulted in a high-paying job in various trades (briefly mentioned by the author). Several books come to mind that would fill in the type of material needed to have full context:
    1. "The Bell Curve" by Herrnstein and Murray
    2. "Aftermath" by Thomas Hall
    3. "The Financial Crisis And the Free Market Cure" by John Allison
    4. " "Wealth Poverty And Politics" by Thomas Sowell
  • isabellesneena
    5.0 out of 5 stars Debt Trap for Paying for Education
    Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2025
    What an eye opening account of what has happened to student debt. This is like the subprime crisis for homes when people would get loans that they couldn’t possibly ever pay.
  • Reflective Reader
    5.0 out of 5 stars thought provoking
    Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2024
    A must read for anyone who is embarking on a career and considering using student loans. A cautionary tale that may well help to explain the conservative political shift in our country today.
  • Chris
    5.0 out of 5 stars Effectively Distills a Massive, Complex Issue
    Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2023
    Mitchell is able to lay out the evolution, machinations, and individual players of an incredibly complex subject in a clear manner that keeps the big picture in focus the whole way. He depicts the magnitude of an institutional, systemic, far-reaching issue while including relatable individual accounts. This should be required reading for any politician, student, parent, or citizen.
  • Peter Mariani
    5.0 out of 5 stars Astounding and Disturbing
    Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2024
    USA student debt greater than the entire GNP/GDP of Canada????! What a tale of woe. Illuminating history. Interesting personal accounts. Prospective college students beware! Re-think the utility of college and its requisite debt in the first place!! I am, BTW, a tenured full prof at a state univ, now retired.
  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Must-Read! Wall Street Journal's Josh Mitchell Expertly Researched Book Unpacks Student Debt Crisis
    Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2021
    Having followed author Josh Mitchell's career-devoted work on the student debt crisis for years while writing for the Wall Street Journal, I cannot think of a more qualified person to teach us the origins and depths of the student debt crisis in the United States. With an indefatigable spirit, Josh Mitchell pursues truth by pairing the oft-cited statistics of the crisis with interviewing and listening to the people who created the programs that led to our present situation. Not just a history lesson, this book unlocks empathy by sharing stories of those affected by the crisis in a refreshingly honest examination of accountability, self-awareness, choices, and circumstances. The Debt Trap is an intricate mapping of perverse incentives and no one comes out unscathed. And yet, Josh Mitchell ensures we see glimpses of redemption and optimism throughout even so far as leaving us with suggestions and reforms.
    Read this book to learn about the student debt crisis.
    Read this book as a cautionary tale of perverse incentives and moral hazards.
    Above all, read this book for a front-row seat to an author's craft and pursuit of excellence.
  • Josh Zachariah
    3.0 out of 5 stars Questionable Data
    Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2021
    The author noted the runaway tuition inflation began in the 80's (prior to that it roughly matched CPI). He reasoned that it was a combination of shrinking enrollment (partly a result of shrinking birth rates) and rising costs. Colleges responded not by cutting costs but by raising tuition and this combined with an expansive Sallie Mae led to increased tuition rates. However the enrollment figures seemed not to have fallen if by any in the late 70's and early 80's.

    Perhaps his argument is based on a case by case incidence, but nationally the numbers don't support his argument. The book was otherwise very interesting and still worth a read.

    • Best Sellers in

     
     

    Speed Reading: Learn to Read a 200+ Page Book in 1 Hour (Mental Performance)

    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 3,376
    13.08
     
     

    Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book on Novel Writing You'll Ever Need

    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 5,916
    15.75
     
     

    Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (An Actionable Guide to Implementing the PLC Proc

    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 471
    21.83
     
     

    Pimsleur Spanish Level 1 Lessons 6-10: Learn to Speak, Understand, and Read Spanish with Pimsleur Language Programs

    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 9
    17.29
     
     

    Essential Poker Math, Expanded Edition: Fundamental No-Limit Hold'em Mathematics You Need to Know

    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,258
    17.46
     
     

    Spanish Conversation with Paul Noble: Learn to Speak Everyday Spanish Step-by-Step

    3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 3
    20.32
     
     

    Overcoming Dyslexia: Second Edition, Completely Revised and Updated

    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 2,244
    23.63
     
     

    A History of Video Games in 64 Objects

    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 74
    19.68