100 million credit card accounts are gone since 2008 – Credit card balances decline by 22 percent since their 2008 peak.
Credit cards have been used as a lifeline and a way to live beyond one’s means in the United States for many years. Yet the current environment of deleveraging is hitting credit cards hard. The outstanding balance on credit card debt has reached a level last seen over a decade ago. This is positive since [...]
The dark financial clouds engulfing Europe. CBO projects massive deficits yet Treasury Bills move lower on global mattress bet.
The Congressional Budget Office released national debt projections showing the US Federal debt will surge to over 200 percent of GDP in the next two decades. Or maybe it will go under 100 percent. It is an interesting wide range projection. You only have a few options to remedy the situation and for the moment [...]
Contagion and the viral spreading of debt based systems – CEO pay at regional banks surge on average to $10.5 million thanks to bailouts while austerity is forced onto the middle class.
The biggest economy in the world just reached a new peak with their unemployment rate. We are not talking about the United States but the massive block in the Eurozone. The unemployment rate in the 17 country block reached a new all-time high at 10.9 percent as austerity measures are being used to combat massive [...]
Hitting the credit card wall – Credit card debt contracts 17 percent as the grand American household deleveraging continues. Average household with credit card debt carries $16,000 at an average rate of 15% – Real broke housewives. Orange County California witnesses a 600 percent jump in bankruptcies.
Credit card debt has become a big financial albatross for many American families. According to the Federal Reserve Survey on Consumer Finance over 176 million credit cardholders exist in the United States. This is an amazing figure when you actually think about what a credit card is. A credit card essentially allows you to spend [...]
The endgame of the credit card nation – 40 year bull market in revolving debt expansion comes to a sudden halt. U.S. consumers on average have 4 credit cards with 1 out of 7 having 10 or more.
Credit cards are the gateway financial opiate of choice for many spenders. Banks understand that if consumers begin mistaking debt for actual wealth then this would lead to more willingness to borrow on bigger ticket items like cars and homes as the appetite for credit expands. This psychological gamble paid off multiple dividends over the [...]
Credit card withdrawal – Banks pull the plug on consumer revolving debt. Credit card debt outstanding contracts from nearly $1 trillion to $800 billion. Bankruptcies on the rise even with tougher bankruptcy laws.
When people talk about the credit bubble they typically refer to the housing bubble and the trillions of dollars of debt secured by real estate. Yet the credit bubble also applies to student loans, government debt, and those pesky wallet hugging credit cards. The American economy has embraced credit cards as quickly as apple pie [...]
Sticking it to small business – Small firms charged an average of $3,224 per month of business expenses on credit cards. Yanking the credit card from small business. $40 billion less to small businesses in Q1 of 2010 compared to 2008.
42 million Americans work in firms that have 99 employees or less. We are often told how vital small business is to the health of our nation’s economy. Usually this rhetoric is given to us by banks and Wall Street yet recent data shows a very different attitude. Words ring hollow when it comes to [...]
American middle class slowly disappearing under mounds of debt – How Wall Street and government sucked working and middle class Americans into perpetual debt serfdom.
People quickly forget about the nearly 1,000 point “flash crash” brought on by glitches in the Wall Street casino machinery. Still no sensible explanation has been given but today the stock market now stands below the flash crash moment. The middle class is witnessing the largest wealth transfer in history take place and it is [...]
Middle class shackled by banking debt chains. 113 million households each owe an average of $113,000 in banking debt for mortgages, student loans, credit cards, and auto loans. $45 trillion in household sector debt, government debt, and domestic financial sector debt.
The middle class has been systematically shackled by large amounts of debt, banking debt to be exact in a new form of financial serfdom. Much of this started in the early 1970s on par with the deficits don’t matter policy that engulfed our monetary policy for the next four decades. Like any giant structure built [...]
The great American debt purge – Americans more stressed out about debt. Mortgage, credit card, student loan, and auto loan debt up to $13.5 trillion. Average debt per household at over $120,000.
Every man, woman, and child would owe an average of $43,000 if we divided up mortgage, credit card, student, and auto debt in the United States. Of course, this is based on the current population of 309 million. But we know this isn’t exactly accurate since an infant really didn’t charge up a credit card [...]
