The following graph shows the growth of federal (taxpayer funded) loans to students from 1995 through today. As you can see the chart has now become parabolic, similar to a subprime housing graph from 6 years ago.
Student loans have now become the largest asset the federal government owns. The blue piece in the pie graph below shows that student loans now compose 34.7% of the total through the first quarter of 2012.
It is commons sense that the student loan crisis will be a complete disaster, but will it be worse than the subprime housing crisis? Professor Antony Davies of George Mason University argues why he believes it will.
For a more in depth discussion on student loans, sovereign debt, and asset price direction in the months ahead see 2012 Second Half Outlook.
h/t The Big Picture