Debt Crisis In America: A Record
Number Of Americans Are Behind On Car Payments
Debt
has become an issue of concern for those who care about their financial future.
But with the government setting the terrible example of drastically spending
more than they bring in, many in America are following suit and it is leading
to a crisis and a red flag for the economy.Just on the heels of the United States government’s debt surpassing $21 trillion comes the news that there are now a record number of Americans who are behind on their record high car payments. According to CNBC, more than 7 million Americans are at least 90 days behind on their auto loans, according to the New York Fed. This is a major concern, considering the average car payment in the U.S. is now $523.
“More and more people are buying too much car for what they can afford,” said Ed Mierzwinski, senior director of U.S. PIRG’s federal consumer program. Overall, auto debt accounts for about 9 percent of total U.S. consumer debt, up from 6 percent in late 2011, separate data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City show.
The amount of Americans currently in default of their car loans is higher than in 2010 when many were still reeling from the 2008 Great Recession, a statistic that is once again, showing that the U.S. economy may not be nearly as strong as the media’s talking heads present. The “number of distressed borrowers suggests that not all Americans have benefited from the strong labor market and warrants continued monitoring and analysis of this sector,” Fed economists say.
Auto debt has soared and with that comes people who cannot pay the bill they signed up for. The dramatic uptick in delinquencies came along with a dramatic $584 billion jump in total auto loan debt. That’s the highest increase in car debt since the New York Fed began keeping track 19 years ago.
Overall, household debt rose by $32 billion, or 0.2 percent, to
$13.54 trillion in the fourth quarter. That’s $869 billion higher than the
crisis peak of $12.68 trillion and is 21.4 percent above the post-crisis low
point in the second quarter of 2013.
Student loan debt edged higher to $1.46 trillion while credit card
balances rose to $870 billion, right around their crisis peak. –CNBC
These
delinquencies also come as Americans grapple with record levels of consumer debt and student loan debt. In a report issued
Wednesday, U.S. PIRG warns that the continuing rise in auto debt is putting
many consumers in a financially vulnerable position, which could worsen during
an economic downturn. Coupled with consumer and student loan debt, Americans
are staring a crisis in the face.Overall debt carried by Americans also set off red flags as that number ticked up.Americans now owe a record $13.5 trillion and global debt is also a concern.
National Debt Passes $22
Trillion: A Crisis In The Making
The
national debt should be a huge concern for every single American, as the
government is essentially stealing from people not yet born to pay for things
now. As debt increases, so does volatility and interest rates; and at
some point, the government will have to admit they cannot pay that money back.“Reaching this unfortunate milestone so rapidly is the latest sign that our fiscal situation is not only unsustainable but accelerating,” said Michael A. Peterson, chief executive officer of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan organization working to address the country’s long-term fiscal challenges. According to Yahoo, the problem is that our taxes are too low, not the government’s frivolous spending.
According to Yahoo, a big national debt can also make it harder for the government to increase spending to combat the next recession or devote more money to retraining workers and helping the poor, among other programs. It seems that the media is more concerned about making sure money is funneled through incompetent bureaucrats than anything else. If government programs designed to help the poor with stolen funds (taxes) were effective, there wouldn’t be a skyrocketing homeless epidemicinfecting socialist cities in California.
The problem is that government programs are never effective and aren’t voluntary. They simply take money from some, and after paying incompetent “public servants” a pittance is returned to “help the poor.”
Peterson attributed the growing national debt to “a structural mismatch between spending and revenues.” And while that’s the truth, the media continues to hide the fact that firstly, taxation is theft simply because it’s compulsory, and not voluntary. Peterson then says that the biggest drivers of the deficit are the aging population, high healthcare costs, and growing interest payments, combined with a tax code that fails to generate sufficient revenue, he said. However, what the mainstream media fails to tell anyone is that the federal government generated plenty of revenue (stolen funds). The ruling class collected a record amount of taxes in 2018. They stole $1,683,537,000,000 in individual income taxes in fiscal 2018 (October 2017 through September 2018), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today. That doesn’t include taxation and theft of any other kind. In fiscal 2018, total tax collections equaled $3,328,745,000,000, according to the Treasury statement. So what we have here, folks is a spending problem. The ruling class steals your money, spends it on lavish salaries and homes for themselves, then goes into debt to not fix the problems they promised to when you voted. And yet we have a nation of statists that bow to this immoral culture as if it’s the only religion.
Perhaps if the mainstream media would dare to actually publish how much money is stolen from Americans to pay for the lavish lifestyles of the wealthy rulers who dictate their lives, we would have a lot more people demanding their freedom from the totalitarians they voted for.
Powell Claims No ‘Elevated’ Risk For US
Recession, NY Fed Models Disagree
“Luckily for Powell, it pays to play the role
of Baghdad Bob for the US economy, as Bernanke’s $1 million book
deal and speaking fees illustrate…”Today
Jerome Powell got out of the beltway and enjoyed some southern hospitality at
Mississippi Valley State University, speaking at the Hope Enterprise
Corporation Rural Policy Forum.
Most of the Fed Chairman’s talk was dedicated to talking
about how the Fed could the financial needs of rural areas, a questionable
claim considering the direct role central banks have played in increasing wealth inequality. He
did, however, provide some additional thoughts on the strength of the US
economy as a whole.
In particular, when asked about future risk, he said he did not
“feel that the probability of recession is at all elevated.”
What’s interesting is that this claim does not follow the models
published by the NY Federal Reserve which shows the current risk of recession
at the highest they’ve been since 2008.
Of course, given
the poor track record of Federal Reserve models,
perhaps more useful is that this rosy view of the US economy seems to
contradict the recent policy trends from the Powell Fed.
This includes changes to recent FOMC statements and projections
about the rate of future rate increases, as well as indicating a willingness to
stall the slow normalization of the Fed’s balance sheet that is currently in
process. As he said in late January:
We’re listening carefully with – sensitivity to the message that
the markets are sending and we’ll be taking those downside risks into account
as we make policy going forward…If we came to view that the balance sheet
normalization or any other aspect of the normalization was part of the problem,
we wouldn’t hesitate to make a change.
Though the statement was made in carefully managed “Fed Speak”,
the message it communicated couldn’t have been more clear – particularly since
Powell has long been an inner Fed voice concerned about the size of the Fed’s balance
sheet. The market understood that Trump finally got the Dovish
Federal Reserve that he has spent the last year campaigning for. The day of the
announcement was the first in Powell’s tenure that the market reacted positively to one of his rate-setting announcements.
Unfortunately for Powell, none of the arguments for
“normalizing” monetary policy has changed since Powell first outlined his
desires for a slow and gradual wind down. The economic data that the Fed claims
to make its decisions off of continue to look strong and the dangers of
facing a crisis with the monetary interventionists tools they desire have not
gone away. So what has changed? Maybe, just maybe, it’s the perceived risk of a
future recession that the Fed’s models, other signals, and a growing legion of economists are projecting.
Of course, in the Chairman’s defense, it would be a mistake to
see the Fed’s top role as one of truth teller. The Fed’s job is necessarily a
political one, to project an air of confidence and try to maintain confidence
in the system. Unfortunately, hot air only goes so far, as Bernanke learned in
2007.
Luckily for Powell, it pays to play the role of Baghdad Bob for
the US economy, as Bernanke’s $1 million book deal and speaking fees illustrate.
Majority Of Small Business Owners Think
Recession Is Coming THIS YEAR
A majority of small business owners think that
another recession is coming to the United States, and coming soon. Here are the
details…In a new survey, a majority of small business owners think that
another recession is coming, and soon. Over half of small business owners
surveyed believe that the recession will happen in the next year.
Likely using their business sense that made them successful and
looking at the overall big picture (which is painted nicely over a big pile of
excrement), small business owners are not all that optimistic about the coming
year. The latest CNBC/SurveyMonkey
Small Business Survey is highlighting concerns of United States
entrepreneurs. As the mainstream media continues to whitewash the precarious situation the national and global economy is in,
many are slowing realizing just how disastrous the next crash or recession will be; and
part of the apocalyptic future will be because the media refused to tell the blatant truth about
how bad the debt crisis and everything bubble truly is.
This was the first time in the two-year-plus history of the
survey that small-business owners were asked for their recession forecast, but
the broader survey trends over time indicate more caution on the part of
entrepreneurs as multiple readings of small-business sentiment has
declined, reported CNBC of their own survey.
“While a slim majority of small-business owners see a recession
ahead, there’s little sign that they think it’s imminent,” said Jon Cohen,
chief research officer at SurveyMonkey. “The small-business index has tapered
off from its peak in Q3 2018, but it certainly hasn’t hit a wall, and several
of its core components remain strong,” Cohen said. And perhaps that’s part of the
problem. Even some of the elitists who wield power over others
have come out with warnings that a recession is nearing and that they [your
political overlords] won’t be able to stop it or even help you out.
SEE ALSO: Paul Krugman Expects A Recession THIS YEAR: And The Ruling Class
Won’t Be Able To Help You
Wall
Street surveys also are revealing elevated recessionary fears. The CNBCFed Survey
conducted in January, which includes economists, fund managers, and
strategists, placed the probability of a recession in the next 12 months at 26
percent, the third straight increase and the highest since January
2016, and the highest of the Trump presidency. A recent Wall Street Journal
survey of economists finds fears of a recession at a seven-year high. -CNBC
A nationwide survey of more than 10,000 Americans conducted by
SurveyMonkey in January also found a high level of recession anxiety.
Main Street looks like they understand just how glaringly bad things can
become. 63 percent of Americans say a recession is likely in the next year and
only 10 percent saying it was “very unlikely.” But are Americans prepared for a recession?
Most analysts say no, as it seems no lessons were learned after the 2008 Great
Recession.
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