Question 1 - 4 are based on the following passage.

    The economic world has been buzzing for the last two years now as investors, homeowners, and trend analysts alike attempt to identify the causes, and ultimate effects, of the sub-prime lending mortgage crisis. Papers have been filled with headlines detailing the mass evictions, leading in particularly tragic cases to entire communities being reduced to little more than shanty towns. The onus today seems to be to find which people in which industry are to blame, but, in the end, untangling that knotted mess may prove impossible, and even were we to reveal an identifiable cause, would that help solve the current problems?

    What is not drawing as much attention, but perhaps should be, is the effect that all of this has had not just on the value of the dollar internationally but domestically as well. The cost to rent an apartment has risen dramatically in most major metropolitan areas, as families that once owned homes are forced back into the rental market. The cost of student loans has also peaked sharply, with federal interest rates up to three times as high as the rates from a mere six years ago. Unfortunately for the many people affected by this, it seems unlikely that the rising cost of a college education will come to the attention of those at the highest levels until the country sees a decrease in the number of students receiving college degrees, at which point the solution may be out of our hands.

The word peaked in the second paragraph most nearly means ....