"Student Loans Have Become Big Business"

The Times Education Life section does a good job of explaining the problem with student loans these days.
"How did this critically important social program become so unmoored from its original intent, which was to help poor and middle-class students pay for college? To put it another way, why did student loans become more about shareholders than about students?"

Here's where I diverge from Joe Nocera's analysis: "No reform legislation is going to change the essential nature of any business, and student loans are no exception."

Disagree. This particular business was created by federal fiat and it can be destroyed the same way. If you only have direct loans, you have no student loan business.