These Debt Slaves are the Government’s Largest Asset Class, and it will Haunt the Economy for Years

Jon Banking, Blogosphere, Economy, Education, Government, Market Commentary

‘One of the biggest threats to our economic outlook.’
Endless discussions of how important inflation is to the US economy, and how there hasn’t been enough of it in recent years, and how more inflation would be a godsend, has become the standard. The threat of lethal deflation is being brandished to rationalize all kinds of absurd monetary policies. And we know why: inflation is good only for debtors, in an over-indebted country.
But that’s not true either. Because a lot of debtors, particularly those who funded their education with loans, are being strangled by … inflation.
‘College Tuition and Fees constitute one of the biggest threats to our economic outlook,’ writes Jill Mislinski at Advisor Perspectives, which runs an excellent series of analyses and updates on the topic.
The chart below (by Advisor Perspectives) shows the Consumer Price Index sub-component for college tuition and fees (red line) going back to 1978. It also shows the price increases of autos (blue line) and medical care (purple line), ‘both of which pale in comparison’:

This post was published at Wolf Street by Wolf Richter ‘ June 13, 2016.