May 132013
 

At the beginning of American history, there was a slave class, not African-born but English, Scottish or Irish indentured servants who either sold themselves or had themselves sold for debt. They were called indentured servants.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, almost 13 percent of student-loan borrowers of all ages owe more than $50,000, and nearly 4 percent owe more than $100,000. These debts are beyond students’ ability to repay, (especially in our nearly jobless recovery); this is demonstrated by the fact that delinquency and default rates are soaring. Some 17 percent of student-loan borrowers were 90 days or more behind in payments at the end of 2012.

via Student Debt and the Crushing of the American Dream – NYTimes.com.

Mar 092013
 

…heard screaming as he runs towards the exit.

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An analysis last month by Donghoon Lee, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, found that “student debt is the only kind of household debt that continued to rise through the Great Recession” and is now the “second largest balance after mortgage debt.”

According to Mr. Lee, student loan debt is fast approaching a trillion dollars, up from less than $400 billion in 2004, and both the number of borrowers and the average balance per borrower have “increased by 70 percent between 2004 and 2012 (7 percent per year).”A September Pew Research Center report found that “a record one-in-five households now owe student loan debt.”

via A Dangerous ‘New Normal’ in College Debt – NYTimes.com.