The student debt is worrisome to be sure, but I wouldn't lose too much sleep over the situation just yet.

Hyperinflation--which is really hyperinflation, like what cracked open Weimar Germany like an egg and is tearing what's left of Zimbabwe apart at the seams--is usually defined as 50% inflation per month. Even the worst parts of the U.S. aren't seeing anything like that. (We're seeing things closer to 5 or 6% per year. So far. Depending on who you listen to.)

If you default on a student loan what you're really doing is stiffing the U.S. gov't, or the gov't of the city/state where you live if you got the loan locally. The gov't guaranteed the loan when it was originated. The school has its money and the bank that underwrote the loan has its money--the gov't is now asking you (or your wife) to pay it for the luxury of having guaranteed the loan. If she can't and others can't, the gov't can either borrow more money to cover the shortfall or raise taxes to cover the difference. Raising taxes is good for very little, economically speaking, and good for even less politically speaking, so more borrowing is probably how it will go.

The real fallout from what we're seeing in the news comes from the fact that mortgage brokers and banks were selling billions of dollars of high-risk loans to people who had no real ability to pay the loans back. And considering thet most of the jobs created in this country since the mid-1990s were in the housing industry, well, it'll filter down to everything else eventually.

Lots of law suits to go around over this, meaning lots of work for lawyers. I'd say your wife got the degree just in time.