A College Degree Doesn’t Guarantee a Good Job: Gary Shilling
Anyone who has a kid in college knows that August can be the cruelest month. That's when the bill for the fall semester is due and usually it's higher than the bill for any previous semester. Over the past decade college tuition and fees have been increasing much faster than the rate of inflation. The average annual cost for tuition, fees and room and board is $38,600 for a private 4-year college and $17,000 for a public 4-year college (for out-of state residents it's $30,000), according to the College Board. These rising costs coupled with a sluggish economy are driving more students and their families to borrow for college. Outstanding student loan debt now tops $1 trillion, exceeding the amount of total credit card debt in the U.S. An increasing number of those borrowers come from middle to upper middle class households, with incomes between $94,000 and $205,000. According to a Wall Street Journal analysis of recent Federal Reserve data, 26% of those...