Once again we ask (rhetorically of course), just what is it that the-powers-that-be mean when they discuss "inflation"? As we noted a year ago [3], while the "ZIRP is the answer to all" solution has led to a rise in the price of almost everything that matters [4] (and doesn't for that matter); one 'cost' stands out among the others (whether under Bernanke or Greenspan) - in the past 3 decades there has been no other cost that comes even remotely close to matching the near hyperinflationary surge in college tuition and costs.
[5]
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As to who foots the bill?
It is all those young men and women who are indoctrinated day in and day out by every possible legacy media, whose sole interest is also to perpetuate the status quo, that the only way to succeed in this world is through untenable debt. Of course, it is packaged differently: study, get a loan, get a job and pay off the loan.
Sadly, this is no longer the case in the New Normal where one is lucky to get a part-time job paying minimum wage, let alone one which allows the repayment of debt principal (this ignores the possibility of interest rates actually rising at some point in the future).
Another thing that is also certain is that this kind of price surge in unsustainable, as is the associated exponential increase in student debt.
We can only hope both bubbles pop sooner rather than later, if for no other reason than to put the majority of status quo professors, who have been gladly and quality benefiting from this phenomenon for years, out on the streets, and having to take out a loan to see what it means to become an indentured servant for themselves.
Chart: Bloomberg