College commencement addresses often our collections of bromides and boring advice.

You know what I mean.

Go forth graduates and save the planet.

You are the nation's hope.

You have worked hard and learned much from devoted faculty.

And don't forget to floss and to use sunscreen.

Boring.

Just once, a commencement speaker should puncture the smug complacency

and cloying self-congratulation on campuses.

Someone should give the following commencement address.

Members of the graduating class, you who are about to receive your diploma

should also receive an apology from this university

and a refund of a large portion of the tuition you have paid.

You have been cheated, built, propagandized, and badly educated.

Your tuition has been much too costly for which you can blame the federal government

and the avarice of the university.

Washington has produced a bubble in higher education just the way it produced the bubble in housing.

Some government planners decided that two few people owned homes.

So the planners decided to force an increase in home ownership.

They lowered lending standards for people seeking a mortgage.

This produced a glut of subprime loans and subprime borrowers.

And then a crash.

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