Racket wrote:
from the article :
"Consumer debt, not counting mortgages, has climbed to $4 trillion—higher than it has ever been even after adjusting for inflation. Mortgage debt slid after the financial crisis a decade ago but is rebounding.
Student debt totaled about $1.5 trillion last year, exceeding all other forms of consumer debt except mortgages.
Auto debt is up nearly 40% adjusting for inflation in the last decade to $1.3 trillion. And the average loan for new cars is up an inflation-adjusted 11% in a decade, to $32,187, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from credit-reporting firm Experian."
the tricky tricky thing on debt numbers is that because interest rates have fallen so massively....the amount of dollars it takes to service the loans has fallen dramatically.
You'd think that if someone owes more in student debt than the last generation then he would have to pay more each month. But that's generally not true - I read somewhere that monthly student loan payments are not much different than in the past.
But the total debt has risen, sure. So it's bad but not as bad as it may seem.
Car debt though - god americans are dumb with their cars. They've been told (and believe) that buying a $40,000 truck is normal and not a big deal.