I am 31 years-old. That's a number that, unfortunately, I can very much understand.

What I struggle to understand is a number like 1.465 trillion. Dollars. 1.465 trillion dollars.

What? Can someone show me a trillion of anything?

That is, according to a recent report from Bloomberg News, the outstanding student loan debt as of last month. In reaching that quantity, the outstanding national student loan debt has officially doubled since the END of the recession in June of 2009.

"Over 90 percent of student loans are guaranteed by the United States Department of Education, meaning that if a recession causes a rise in youth unemployment and triggers mass defaults, this contingent liability could prove burdensome for the U.S. government budget," Paul Della Guardia, an economist at the Institute of International Finance told Bloomberg.

There's a LOT more at risk than my own wallet.

One group of students, just a few years younger than me, have been particularly impacted. Student loans disbursed since 2012 have defaulted at a fast rate than any other loan segment since the financial crisis.

If you do the math, this means that those accepting loans in 2012 were likely entering the workforce when unemployment was twice what is now. This is extenuated by facts found by the Bureau of Labor statistics that say that finding a position in 2012 took almost THREE times longer than today.

The comprehensive report continues, breaking the overwhelming quantity owed into age-segments. More Americans are taking student debt with them into old age, with as of Sept. 2018 1.8 millions borrowers age 62 and older owed $62.5 billion in federal student loan debt.

Where does it stop? Who saw this coming? It's an interesting conundrum, as students that pushed to excel academically, possibly overextending their financial means in order to achieve in challenging labor atmosphere, are suffering the consequences, possibly for a lifetime to come.

 

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