More Americans are getting buried by student debt — causing delays in home ownership, limiting how much people can save and leaving taxpayers at risk as many loans go unpaid. The statistics look daunting.
Student debt now totals around $1.26 trillion. This amounts to a stunning 350 percent increase since 2005, according to the New York Federal Reserve. Not everyone sees that surge as troubling. President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers issued a report this year saying that the debt is beneficial because college graduates earn more money than people with only high school degrees.