A hidden time bomb ticks away inside the government budget: Within a handful of years, US taxpayers will be on the hook for over $100 billion in student loan defaults.
Just last Friday, the US Department of Education released new data on student loan defaults. In short: The hissing sounds coming from the student loan bubble are getting louder.
I doubt it’s a coincidence the Department of Education chose last Friday (when attentions had shifted to the weekend) to release new three-year cohort default rate data for federal student loans. The three-year cohort default rate is defined as follows: the percentage of borrowers who enter repayment on certain loans during a particular federal fiscal year (Oct. 1-Sept. 30) and default or meet other specified conditions prior to the end of the second following fiscal year.
The default rate is horrendous, and it’s only going to get worse. These are uncollateralized loans, so losses given default will be orders of magnitude higher than losses on subprime mortgages; in subprime, losses were mitigated by the value of housing collateral.
“More than one in 10 borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans, intensifying concern about a generation hobbled by $1 trillion in debt and the role of colleges in jacking up costs,” a Bloomberg story notes. The story continues:
Read More at dailyreckoning.com . By Dan Amoss.
Recent Comments