The moratorium on repaying student loans in America was a bad idea

Milton friedman used to joke that nothing is so permanent as a temporary government programme. So it nearly was with America’s moratorium on student-loan payments. The debt-relief scheme—which suspended payments, interest charges and collections on more than $1trn in federal student loans—was passed by Congress in the early days of the pandemic. Although meant to expire after just six months, it proved popular with voters and was extended eight times, despite a price tag of $5bn a month. Now the programme may at last be ending for good. The debt-ceiling deal negotiated by President Joe Biden and the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, would resume student-loan payments on August 30th, without the possibility of an extension.