The Trump administration's new rules specifically call out NYU and USC — two schools in major blue cities — in the official Education Department fact sheet. Ron Lieber calls it '23% political,' but notes there has been genuine bipartisan frustration with the student loan system for years.
Where this was said
At 9:40 · chapter starts 9:30
The second plank of the new policy is an earnings test tied directly to outcomes. For undergraduate programs, alumni must earn more on average than same-state high school graduates aged 25–34, measured 4 years after graduation. Graduate programs face a parallel test: alumni must out-earn the median salary for bachelor's degree holders in the same age group. If a program fails this test in 2 out of 3 consecutive years, it loses access to federal student loans entirely — meaning students who want to enroll must find funding elsewhere. Ron Lieber, who has analyzed a dataset of more than 30,000 undergraduate majors, says religion degrees and fine arts programs at many schools are likely to fail. But he emphasizes that no consequences will materialize for at least 3 years, because of the rolling 2-of-3 structure. The underlying logic is blunt: if a degree doesn't put you ahead of a high school diploma in the labor market, what exactly has the federal government been subsidizing? [1] — Ron Lieber "Federal loans will be cut off from undergraduate programs whose graduates don't out-earn same-state high school graduates, measured 4 years…" 10:37
Federal loans will be cut off from undergraduate programs whose graduates don't out-earn same-state high school graduates, measured 4 years after graduation. Fail in 2 out of 3 years and the program is shut out of the federal loan system — potentially killing low-ROI degrees like religion and fine arts.
In 1980, the federal government started backing student loans because families were struggling with just a few thousand dollars in tuition. College attendance was lower, the borrowers seemed like safe risks, and the dollar volumes were small — so the government skipped the guardrails. Those guardrails never came back.
Undergraduate programs must show alumni earning more than same-state high school graduates aged 25–34, measured 4 years after graduation, or risk losing federal loan eligibility.
Fei-Fei Li went back to Stanford from Google in 2018 specifically to build a multi-stakeholder governance framework for AI. Her argument: market forces are not societal norms. Just as biology uses IRBs and cars have safety laws, AI needs layered oversight from educators, governments, and the public — not just a few industry titans.
Andrew Santino's personal MCU of political villains is collapsing. He and Bobby speculated that a circulating photo of Mitch McConnell with a Chinese official was AI-generated compositing two separate images.
Mass surveillance is here to stay. The real battle isn't stopping cameras — it's ensuring judges and laws keep that data out of family court and civil disputes, admitting it only for violent crimes and national security. The surveillance economy currently yields more upside than downside, but only if we build the legal guardrails now.
When people cite Scandinavia as proof socialism works, Galloway says they've got it backwards. Northern Europe runs highly competitive free-market economies with more competition in many sectors than the US — they just make sure taxes are actually paid and redistributed. Billionaires and universal healthcare can coexist.
Two percent adjustments to income tax and stamp duty tweaks are deck-chair rearrangements. The UK's competitiveness hinges on four structural levers: currency valuation, energy costs, regulatory burden, and tax rates. Devalue the pound, build 56 nuclear plants, slash red tape, introduce a flat tax — and the country transforms.
Lisbon had one of Europe's worst heroin crises. Then Portugal legalised drugs and redirected all enforcement money into rehabilitation and housing. Crime collapsed. Addiction fell. Then politics moved the money elsewhere, and the problem started creeping back. Chesterton's Fence: you forget why you were spending that money.
Congress passed the Boland Amendment 411 to 0, explicitly banning CIA and Defense Department funds for the Contras. Reagan signed it — then immediately moved the operation deeper underground, essentially responding to a bipartisan prohibition by going more illegal.
The CIA planted mines in Nicaraguan commercial harbors, wrote the Contras' press releases taking credit, and promptly blew up ships from four allied nations. The Wall Street Journal broke the story, Congress erupted, and the Boland Amendments multiplied.
Oliver North was a decorated Marine and devout Catholic with zero covert operations experience. He ran the entire shadow war against Congress — planes, airstrips, arms shipments, shell companies — learning on the job. And by every operational measure, he crushed it.
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