Oh

 

and it just keeps getting better:

Americans Continue to Pile on More and More Debt

"American consumers continue to cope with rising prices and prop up the sagging economy using their credit cards.

Total consumer debt rose another $23.8 billion in July to a record $4.644 trillion, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve."

"Consumer credit grew by an average of $30 billion per month through the first seven months of the year.

Americans are burning up their plastic in order to make ends meet. Revolving credit, primarily reflecting credit card debt, rose by another $10.9 billion, an 11.6% annual increase. To put that into perspective, the annual increase in 2019, prior to the pandemic was 3.6%. It’s pretty clear that with stimulus money long gone, Americans have turned to plastic in order to make ends meet as prices continue to skyrocket.

"The central bank is expected to push rates up another 50 to 75 basis points during its September meeting.

This is bad news for Americans depending on credit to pay their bills. With interest rates rising, Americans are paying higher and higher interest charges every month with minimum payments rising."

"For months, the mainstream has told us the massive growth in debt was a sign of economic health. Last month, MarketWatch reported, “How much credit households use is seen as a good window into the strength of the economy. Consumers tend to borrow more when times are good and cut back when the economy is weak.” Meanwhile. Fed chair Jerome Powell keeps telling us that “households are in very strong financial shape.” 

(Months? More like years, see Greenspan as in former FED chair.)

"You probably won’t hear that narrative from the mainstream. But any slowdown in spending is bad news for an economy that relies on people buying stuff. Of course, the slowing of the debt increase likely just reflects slightly lower energy prices in July and not any real change in consumer spending."

"The bottom line is that Americans continue to borrow at an excessive rate because they don’t have any other way to make ends meet. People don’t run up their Visa balance month after month to buy groceries when they are in “very strong” financial shape. The stimulus checks are long gone. Savings are being depleted. The average person has no choice but to pull out the plastic. Of course, this is not a sustainable trajectory. A credit card has this inconvenient thing called a limit.