Student Loans Outstanding Surpass Size Of US Junk Market

While the investment world’s attention is focused on the bitcoin and cryptocurrency bubble, another potentially more damaging bubble is brewing in the US.

The value of outstanding student debt has exploded in recent years, and debt balances have now reached $1.3 trillion in face value, roughly the same size as the US high-yield corporate bond market according to a recent report from Goldman Sachs analysts Marty Young and Lotfi Karoui.

The student loan market may be the same size as the high-yield market, but its credit fundamentals couldn’t be more different. Indeed, according to Goldman’s analysts, the quarterly transition rate for student loans that falling into serious (90+ delinquency)...