This week, the economic crisis worsened in a number of different ways, chief among them the plummeting of the Consumer Confidence index. When I was a student and first heard the term “consumer confidence” being talked about very seriously, my reaction was to dismiss it out of hand. “Consumer confidence” … why would I care about that? I don’t want to be a confident consumer, I want to be confident as a person; especially, I wanted to be a confident college student.

If there were a Student Confidence index, it would be the primary concern of this blog. Our job is to aid you, the current or prospective student, by providing you the information you need organized in a sensible way that boosts your confidence.

This week, the economic news figures heavily into the (fictional) Student Confidence Index, and the news is, surprisingly, mostly positive. According to the Reuters article “Securitized student loan debt is good,” Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson said securitized student loans are still strongly credit-worthy. But the system has tightened up to the point that federal intervention is necessary, and the Treasury is looking to intervene in a way that prioritizes students and taxpayers first. “The role we will play,” Paulson said, “is the role that we think is in the best interest of the taxpayers and the students and it won’t be a role that is necessarily designed by the financial institutions.”

Also, later in that same Reuters article: “There are few signs so far of students being unable to get loans, academic leaders told a Senate hearing last week… But the Bush administration on Wednesday endorsed a precautionary federal intervention to stabilize the market along the lines of legislation passed last week by the House of Representatives and under consideration in the Senate.”

Earlier this week, Paulson released a joint statement with Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, found here.

Among the highlights:

“We recognize that education is the foundation of a strong American workforce and we must not let challenges in our capital markets hinder our students’ opportunities. Given these ongoing concerns, the Administration is taking a series of steps to support the student loan market.” These include:

President Bush signing the extension of the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act, which grants the Department of Education “renewed temporary powers to use federal funds to ensure students and families continue to have access to student loans.

“The loan purchase and participation interest programs implemented over the last few months have helped ensure that Federal student loans were available to students enrolling in postsecondary institutions for the 2008-2009 school year, and Federal student lending is exceeding last year’s pace.”

That’s all very well and good, but comparing this year to last does not inspire a ton of (student) confidence. Here’s as specifically good as they get:

“Using our newly extended authorities, the Administration is moving aggressively to support the continued availability of funding for federal student loans in the next school year with the goal of restoring the government guaranteed student loan market to normal operations.”

We can expect more in the coming weeks.