Personal income from all sources adjusted for inflation — real income — fell for the second straight month in June and was down 1% on the year. But American consumers continue to spend. How can this be?
They’re running up debt at a dizzying pace.
This undercuts the narrative claiming the American consumer is “healthy.”
There is more talk of student loan forgiveness. Supporters of these schemes argue that the whole system is inherently unfair, although they rarely talk about who would pay for student loan forgiveness. They also seem oblivious to the fact that the federal government created this problem to begin with.
American consumer debt pushed to a new record of $4.15 trillion in September. Part of that equation – the continued surge in the levels of student loan debt.
Student loan balances jumped by $32.9 billion in the third quarter this year, pushing total outstanding student loan debt to a new record of $1.64 trillion. Student loan balances have grown by 5.1% year-on-year.
Over the last decade, student loan debt has grown by 120%. Student loan balances now equal to 7.6% of GDP. That’s up from 5.1% in 2009.
During a recent podcast, Peter Schiff talked about the student loan debacle.
In a nutshell, it’s the government’s fault.
Democratic presidential candidates have been talking about the student loan crisis. And it is indeed a crisis. The total of the outstanding student loans in the US has more than doubled since 2009 when it was $675 million. The rate of delinquency on student loan debt pushed up to 9.5% in the first quarter of 2019, even as total student loan debt climbed to $1.49 trillion. Currently American owe more than $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. That’s more than their outstanding credit card balances.
In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff talked about recent Congressional hearings that featured Rep. Maxine Waters scolding bankers for creating the student debt crisis, ignoring the fact that the student loan program was nationalized a decade ago.
Peter described it as the political theater of the absurd.
Student loan debt has grown to over $1.5 trillion. And that just accounts for loans held by Federal Student Aid. It doesn’t include private loans. Meanwhile, the Department of Education says 43% of those government-backed loans are considered “in distress.”
In a speech last month, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos put the current level of student debt in perspective.
One-point-five trillion dollars is almost impossible to fathom. So, let me put it this way: $1.5 trillion is more than $10,000 of someone else’s student loan debt for each and every American taxpayer—145 million of them.”
The SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap podcast combines a succinct summary of the week’s precious metals news coupled with thoughtful analysis. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
