Student Loans= Huge Economic Drag

There have been a flurry of articles lately on the pernicious growth in student loans. This is a good one from Atlantic . Growing at double digit percentages per year, the aggregate amount will soon top all mortgage and credit card debt combined. Colleges and universities have taken advantage (shall we shall manipulated) of the relative availability of student loan $ and keep pushing costs higher by multiples of the inflation rate. That will likely end soon. Graduates are mostly unemployed or underemployed and are having significant problems paying the out-sized debt. From a larger (macro) economic view this represents a drag on economic growth as household formation , house purchases, car purchases etc. are deferred.