Contact us
CALL US NOW 1-888-GOLD-160
(1-888-465-3160)

The Student Loan Bubble: Gambling with America’s Future

  by    9   1

company-addison-qualeThis article was submitted by Addison Quale, SchiffGold Precious Metals Specialist. Any views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.

The federal government can’t seem to help itself. After overseeing the inflating and bursting of the dot-com bubble in the 1990s and the subprime mortgage bubble in the 2000s, the United States government is at it again – this time in the area of student loans.

Student loan debt now stands at a record $1.2 trillion, which represents the second largest category of consumer debt after home mortgages. It has grown by leaps and bounds since the financial crisis of 2008 and now surpasses even car loans and credit card debt.

image008

As many are aware, the subprime mortgage bubble was encouraged by politicians’ desires to guarantee the American Dream of a home to all Americans – regardless of their credit rating. Generous home loans were offered to people with little wealth or income, and therefore no realistic ability to actually pay them back. But with artificially depressed interest rates and the assumption that home prices would never cease to rise, it didn’t seem like such a bad idea. And with Uncle Sam implicitly guaranteeing to buy these risky mortgages from banks no matter what, subprime mortgage lending exploded.

Of course, we now know the assumption that home prices would go up forever was wrong. Once home prices got overextended and started crashing back to earth, the party was over. And Uncle Sam (a.k.a. the American taxpayer) was left footing the bill – to the tune of over $400 billion with the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

It seems to now be happening all over again. This time politicians claim that a college education is part of the American Dream and is a right of all Americans – regardless of their credit rating and SAT scores. Spurred on by even lower interest rates and the implicit promise that John Q. Taxpayer will once again come to the rescue should anyone happen to default, we now have a growing student loan bubble on our hands.

Since 2003, student loan debt has more than quadrupled – rising from $250 billion to well over $1 trillion. It has increased over $500 billion (a 75% increase) since the beginning of President Obama’s first term, when it sat at $660 billion. Furthermore, at the end of 2008, the default rate was 7.9%, but now stands at 11.3% – a huge increase that is most assuredly an underestimation.

image011

Perhaps the saddest part is that many of the students receiving these loans aren’t even academically prepared for the rigors of college. As a result, almost half of them won’t graduate and reap the rewards of their student-loan-fueled college experience. Instead, they’ll be saddled with this debt for years to come, because not even declaring personal bankruptcy can dismiss student loan debt.

Now at least 11.3% of all outstanding student loans are in default. When added to those in deference or forbearance, which are essentially delinquent loans as well, a more accurate figure of at least a 23% default rate emerges. In other words, we are looking at a total default level of over $250 billion, which most likely will end up being covered by the federal government—otherwise known as the American taxpayer.

image013

Additionally, this $250 billion is just the start of it. It is now projected that the total amount of student loans may balloon to over $3.3 trillion within the next ten years. A 23% default rate on that astounding figure gets you into the neighborhood of over $750 billion. Moreover, with the economy continuing to struggle and more and more college graduates waiting tables instead of finding lucrative jobs, one can only expect this default rate to worsen.

But wait, there’s more! With the recent decision to forgive the student loans of all those who were deceived by the false promises of privately-run Corinthian Colleges (a total of over $3.5 billion), a slippery slope situation may now be at work. Many are hinting that the door has been opened to the possibility of student loan debt forgiveness with respect to many other private colleges. It may not be long before there is a blanket call for all student loans that are in any sort of trouble to be forgiven. The total numbers here would be absolutely staggering. Again, the American taxpayer would be on the hook for it.

Some might say, “What’s the big deal? America has already been dealing with massive amounts of debt. Is this really going to make that much of a difference?”

The big deal is that the student loan bubble does add significantly to the nation’s large debt burden. But more importantly, it is emblematic of an American financial system beholden to a federal government that continues to amass skyrocketing amounts of debt, with neither a demonstrated plan nor any ability to ever pay it off. It’s yet another chunk of debt added on to an ever-increasing pile of debt, which now stands at 102% of an $18 trillion GDP and rising. This doesn’t even take into account the federal government’s unfunded liabilities (i.e., all future Medicare and Social Security commitments), which can be conservatively projected to be well over $127 trillion. Simply put, United States debt is unsustainable.

us debt to gdp

The fact is, while our financial system seems to be humming along pretty well today, a serious reckoning is inevitable. This current path of consistently spending far more than we consume, lending irresponsibly to those who cannot repay, then just borrowing more and more in order to cover it all up will, indeed, hit a wall.

History has proven time and again that all fiat currencies eventually implode due to their abuse by central bankers. The inevitable bursting of the student loan bubble will add to the already massive debt burden and is just one more example of abuse that points to the eventual collapse of the US dollar. And lest we forget, the collapse of a major fiat currency would not be just an inconvenience for society, but a crippling blow to Western civilization.

Addison Quale is a Precious Metals Specialist with SchiffGold. He studied economics at Harvard University and earned a Master of Divinity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Addison brings a well-rounded perspective to precious metals investing, with work experience at an investment consulting firm in Boston.
SchiffGoldWhitePaperStudentLoan590

Get Peter Schiff’s latest gold market analysis – click here – for a free subscription to his exclusive weekly email updates.
Interested in learning more about physical gold and silver?
Call 1-888-GOLD-160 and speak with a Precious Metals Specialist today!


Related Posts

The End of Japan’s Negative Interest Rates: What It Means for Gold

The Bank of Japan’s historic move to end the country’s negative interest rate policy after nearly two decades triggered a jolt upward to new all-time highs for gold against the yen. But what are the implications for gold in the medium and longer term? The answer is far from simple. 

READ MORE →

The BLM’s Quiet War on Precious Metals

The Bureau of Land Management is a federal agency that controls 245 million acres of land and controls 30% of the country’s mineral resources. On the East Coast, it manages little land but manages an enormous share of Western states. It owns over two-thirds of Nevada. This gives the federal government enormous sway over the West. Want […]

READ MORE →

PIMCO: The Fed Needs More Unemployment

Analysts at PIMCO say that for the Fed to reach its goal of lowering inflation to 2%, we need fewer people to be employed. Reduced incentives to offer raises and bonuses and less spending from the “resilient” American consumer can help cool down inflationary pressure. But there’s an elephant in the room: Why do we let a […]

READ MORE →

Junk Bond Default Surge Continues in 2024

Consumers aren’t the only ones defaulting on their debts: Corporate bond defaults were up massively in 2023, especially for high-risk junk debt, and the trend is continuing this year at a pace not seen since the 2008 global financial crisis. Unsurprisingly, companies selling low-rated junk debt are being hit the worst.

READ MORE →

Bankruptcy Laws Plus Inflation Equals Scam

At the end of 2022, investors all around the world who had bet big on cryptocurrency and had their cryptocurrency stored by the crypto exchange, FTX, received bad news. Sam Bankman-Fried and other leaders of the exchange had been using cryptocurrency that was supposedly stored by the exchange to make bets on financial markets. And the […]

READ MORE →

9 thoughts on “The Student Loan Bubble: Gambling with America’s Future

  1. Paul H says:

    I know some older college students (mid 20s) who completely misuse their student loans and grants for motorcycles, partying, leasing expensive BMWs and beef. They’re taking worthless classes and going nowhere yet still have a middle school equivalent level of education. They have no intention of paying back the loans.

    • Addison Quale says:

      I think there are a lot out there like this right now – sadly. It’s just turned out to be kind of a loophole for students to live fat in the here and now and not have to worry about real responsibility till later. Too bad later will come soon enough.

  2. Jim says:

    This article doesn’t mention that student loans are not dis-chargeable in bankruptcy, which means that many of these “students” will be in perpetual slavery to the Feds. If the loans were dischargable, most of the loans wouldn’t be made at all, which would solve this problem wouldn’t it? Maybe I should say more of a slave, since with the income tax we’re all kind of slaves anyway. Still, it’s funny to think that many of these people will have their Social Security retirement checks garnished to pay off their student loan debt!

  3. Augustine says:

    Not only the borrower credit or his abilities, but neither is his major and its earning potential considered when extending him a student loan.

    In my home country, if your major is among the STEM fields, the loan is pretty easy, but, if your major is among the humanities, forget it.

  4. Sniffle Snottyblogger says:

    I can’t think of a more perfect example of the massive corruption that has turned our country into the putrid corpse than the student loan caper. Gangsters (literally) retire from the Legislature to top jobs in the institutions of higher education. The laws are written to subsidize brain-dead fanatics whose only skill (when they have any skill at all) runs to applying a cigarette lighter to flammable material during the looting orgy of the current race riot. None of these tenured faculty could every be considered employable in a real job and that goes double for their “students.” Any Congressperson fit for its job would have limited these loans to subjects in the sciences and technology and high skilled blue collar work where there is a documented shortage of knowledge and skills. Noone should pay a dime of this money back and the bill collectors who harass them should be taken out and shot.

  5. Bill K says:

    Be sure to pick up some hats and streamers. The retirement party for the US middle class is close at hand.

  6. Ian says:

    The with-profits sector is a scam, but how hard would it be for the government to insist on proper student quality checks instead of forking out blanket loans? As it stands it’s invariably the college itself which leads the loan application process on behalf of their students. New regulations are supposedly coming into force to alleviate the problem, but so much damage has already been done.

  7. […] Today's guest is Mike Vine, the Editor at Schiff Gold News and the Principal at Centinel Consulting. I sat down with him last week in his Portsmouth, NH office to discuss the recent paper by Addison Quale titled, "The Student Loan Bubble: Gambling with America’s Future." […]

Leave a Reply to Sniffle Snottyblogger Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Call Now