Private student loan debt hits $150 billion
By The Week Staff | July 20, 2012
Depending on how you look at it, the rising cost of student loans can be blamed on too much government... or too little.
Scott Houston/Corbis
A
new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau notes that Americans now have some $150 billion in private student loan debt. While private loans make up just a fraction of total outstanding student loan debt in the U.S. — which hit $1 trillion last year — they can be especially problematic for borrowers as they usually have higher interest rates and less protections than federal loans. Before the economic crisis, lenders are said to have been "aggressive" in their pursuit of students and often gave them loans beyond what they needed or could afford.
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