How to fix America’s student-financeproblem

如何解决美国学生贷款危机

trillion万亿

borrowing 借贷

quintuple是... …的五倍

overtake赶超

credit cards信用卡

car finance汽车金融

arresting引人注意的

budding含苞待放的

federal government联邦政府

default拖欠债务

pose构成

dupe欺骗

America’s total student debt, at over$1.5trn, is larger than the national borrowing of most countries. It hasquintupled in size since 2004, overtaking both borrowing on credit cards andcar finance. This growth is often presented as evidence of a crisis. But therise in total debt, though arresting, is not the real problem. It largelyreflects increased borrowing by graduate students, such as budding lawyers, whowill go on to be high earners. And 92% of student debt is owed to the federalgovernment, meaning defaults pose no risk to the financial system . The realproblem is that 11m Americans, many poor and non-white, and many duped intostudying for worthless degrees, struggle to repay even modest debts.

文章来源：经济学人