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.
Consumer debt continues to climb and break records every month. But the pace of borrowing slowed in March, a possible red flag for the US economy.
Total consumer debt rose $10.3 billion in March, hitting a record-setting total of $4.05 trillion, according to the latest report by the Federal Reserve.
Through the first quarter of 2019, American indebtedness increased at a 4.25% annual rate. But the March increase came in at just only 3.1% and ranked as the smallest consumer debt increase in nine months.
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.”
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American household debt hit an all-time high in the second quarter of 2017, with increases in every major category, from credit cards, to student loans, to mortgages.
Want to get rich?
Start out by going $100,000 in debt.
That’s the advice offered by JP Sears in a hilarious video that rips up the conventional wisdom on higher education and vividly illustrates the growing student loan debt problem in the United States.
I know the most intelligent way to start making a lot of money is to find a way to get at least $100,000 in debt before you even begin making money. So, I decided to go to college.”
