Silk Summary:
Some very interesting facts from Epoch Times. It shows just how bad things really are in this country! No amount of rhetoric will change that! WE NEED A DRASTIC CHANGE!
Americans are saddled with the most credit card debt in decades as a new report issued Thursday found that it’s nearing the $1 trillion mark.
Although historically low unemployment has kept consumer’s financial footing generally strong, stubbornly high prices and climbing interest rates may be testing some borrowers’ ability to repay their debts,” Wilbert van der Klaauw, an economic research advisor with the New York Fed, said in a statement accompanying the report.
Younger borrowers appear to be struggling more to make repayments for both credit card and auto loans, according to a post issued by the New York Fed.
Americans have been facing higher prices everywhere … including on purchases they may be putting on their credit cards—at the grocery store, at the gas pump, and for many other types of goods,” New York Fed researchers wrote in a post.
Real disposable income fell in 2022, the post added.
It comes as total household debt rose to $16.90 trillion in the same time period, increasing $394 billion, or about 2.4 percent, according to the New York Fed’s report. At the same time, mortgage balances rose to $11.92 trillion, car loan balances rose to $1.55 trillion, and student loan balances increased to $1.60 trillion.
Analysts say that much of the rise in overall debt can be attributed to a tumultuous 2022 in which the U.S. central bank raised its benchmark interest rate from near zero last March to more than 4 percent by the end of last December, the fastest pace of monetary tightening since the early 1980s. Rates have been increased in a bid to deal with inflation rates that haven’t been seen in 40 years.
And more rate hikes will be on the way!