If the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is right, the total
outstanding student loan debt in the United States now stands at
above $1 trillion dollars. In economic terms, that changes very
little about what we already knew regarding college borrowing.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York had previously pegged the
figure at $870 billion by the end of 2011. Either number would
be larger than America’s collective credit card balance. But
psychologically, it’s a sad threshold. A trillion dollars — it
brings home just how enormous the burden is quickly becoming.
[…] And so we’ve reached a point where two-thirds of college
seniors now graduate in debt, where a total of 37 million
Americans now owe money on their education. Sixty-seven percent
are between the ages of 18 and 39, but recent research suggests
the fastest growing group of borrowers may bein middle age —
people who have been laid off from jobs or are afraid their
professional skills aren’t fresh enough to keep up with a
changing economy. Among all bo