in washington dc we're joined by micah hauptman, a financial policy counsel for public citizen's congressch division. here in new york, pamela brown is a phd student in sociology at the new school, where she helped launch the occupy student debt campaign. we welcome you both free at let's go first to washington to micah. explain exactly how this broke down. >> it is great to be here. as you said, interest rates doubled from 3.4% to 6.8% on july 1 for federally subsidized loans. that means students are going to have to spend an additional approximately $1000 per year extra, so it is not insignificant. it does not really make sense because current interest rates are at near historic lows. aboutr treasuries are at 2.5%, and the government is deciding to raise interest rates to 6.8%. there is a wider gap between the rate at which the federal government is borrowing and lending. in practical terms, that means the government is going to make a profit. the congressional budget office predicts the federal government will make about $37 billion this year on federal student loans. >> what needs to