Again?
The US Economy is NOT doing fine……
A survey by NerdWallet, the personal finance company, found the average U.S. household carrying $7,486 in credit-card debt, a 29-percent increase from a year earlier. A third poll, from the personal finance website GOBankingRates, found that 14 million Americans owe more than $10,000 in credit-card debt.
Card balances are rising at a time when consumers may find it harder than ever to pay them down. Credit-card interest rates hit 20 percentin late 2022, according to the Federal Reserve, the highest level in nearly 30 years of tracking.
To buy now and pay later is a classic consumer impulse.
“Americans love their credit cards,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree, the consumer finance company. “We always have credit-card debt, and it is almost always rising.”
The nation’s collective credit-card balance totals $925 billion, according to LendingTree. That’s just below the historic record of $927 billion, set in pre-pandemic 2019. …