I'm guessing you've heard of the acclaimed TV show Game of Thrones.

Seven kingdoms vying for power, plots within plots, watch your back or lose your head.

It's great.

But you've probably never heard of the real-life drama that I call the Game of Loans.

That's a game Washington politicians play on young people,

that is college students every day.

Just like Game of Thrones, the game alone has plots within plots, big winners and big losers.

The winners are politicians and colleges.

They fool students into thinking that by generously providing ever-larger college loans

to cover ever-larger tuition costs, they have earned students votes at election time.

Why do I say students are fooled?

Because it is thanks to the very politicians who promise students more and more aid

in league with the colleges, that college tuition became so expensive in the first place.

Here's how the game works.

According to Bloomberg News, since 1978, the cost of a college education has gone up by over 1000 percent.

Way past the rate of inflation.

Tewish in a loan at many colleges is 20, 40, even $50,000 a year.

So how do you pay for it?

Answer, student loans.

Loans, the government is happy to give you since they collect the interest.

You don't have to be a finance manager to figure out that all these student loans

give colleges no incentive to cut costs.

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