Student Loan Write-Offs Hit $3 Billion -- And Counting -- in 2013

While the drumbeat of "our economy is getting better and better every day" keeps pounding, the reality of the situation is something else. A Reuters story in today's Chicago Tribune noted that student loan write-offs for the first two months of 2013 reached $3 billion. That's a lot of money, even by contemporary standards of wealth measurement.

In case you're keeping score at home, the overall student loan debt surpassed $1 trillion in 2011. That seems like a lot of risk. The old saw that says "If you piled the debt, it would surpass the height of ____________" applies here; in fact, one could fill in the blank with "a college administration building" and conceptually be on target. Meanwhile, the corrupt American university system continues to raise its tuition and fees well beyond any level close to the official inflation guidelines.