U.S. student debt on scary trajectory

By Daniel Indiviglio
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

U.S. student debt is on a scary trajectory. New statistics from the New York Federal Reserve show just how steep it is. Education loans are piling up at an unsustainable rate and delinquencies are rising despite the slowly improving American economy. Instead of trying to tackle the problem, Washington’s policies continue to exacerbate it.

Student loans in the United States have surged to $900 billion from $360 billion in just seven years. Even as the U.S. housing bubble inflated between 1999 and the start of 2006, mortgage balances didn’t grow that fast. The bursting of that bubble triggered the worst recession since the Great Depression. Sure, the numbers were considerably larger. But there’s enough student debt to cause trouble – more than auto loans or credit card debt, for example.

READ MORE:  http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2012/07/18/u-s-student-debt-on-scary-trajectory/