Americans Buy Ever Bigger, More Powerful, More Fuel-Efficient Trucks, SUVs & Cars. EVs Escalate the Horsepower War by Wolf Richter • Nov 25, 2024 • 83 Comments “The roughly linear increase in specific power” of ICE vehicles over the past 50 years “does not appear to be slowing”: EPA.
Credit Card Delinquency Rates, Balances, Burden, and Available Credit in Q3 2024 by Wolf Richter • Nov 19, 2024 • 83 Comments Americans far from “tapped out.” Credit card delinquency rate dips to 3.2% (Fed), “prime” delinquency rate 0.99% (Fitch), “subprime” gets over free-money hangover.
Auto-Loan Balances, Burden, Subprime & Prime Delinquency Rates, and Subprime Dealer America’s Car-Mart in Q3 2024 by Wolf Richter • Nov 16, 2024 • 64 Comments Subprime is always in trouble, and now, after the reckless-subprime lending era, more so. Prime is in pristine shape. Car-Mart joins our Imploded Stocks.
Here Come the HELOCs: Mortgages, the Burden of Housing Debt, Serious Delinquencies, and Foreclosures in Q3 2024 by Wolf Richter • Nov 14, 2024 • 77 Comments HELOC balances surged, mortgages not so much, and incomes grew a lot faster than housing debt.
Household Debt, Delinquencies, Collections, Foreclosures, and Bankruptcies: Our Drunken Sailors and their Debts in Q3 2024 by Wolf Richter • Nov 13, 2024 • 101 Comments As a growing population financed more costly purchases, total debt rose. But income rose even faster in recent quarters.
Our Drunken Sailors Splurge in Q3, Phenomenally so on Durable Goods, Drive GDP Growth. But Debt-to-GDP Ratio Worsens by Wolf Richter • Oct 30, 2024 • 120 Comments Jump in government spending also boosted GDP growth. But surging Imports, falling residential fixed investments, and inventories dragged.
What If There’s No Landing at all, But Flight at Higher Speed and Altitude than Normal, with Higher and Rising Inflation? by Wolf Richter • Oct 13, 2024 • 194 Comments That scenario is re-emerging as a real possibility in recent economic data.
Consumer Income & Savings Rate Revised Massively Higher for 2 Years, Spending Revised Up Too. Stunning Numbers by Wolf Richter • Sep 27, 2024 • 79 Comments Our Drunken Sailors earned and saved a lot more than we thought, spent more too, causing substantial up-revisions to post-pandemic GDP.
Money Market Funds, Large CDs, Small CDs, and T-Bills: Americans and their Huge Piles of Interest-Earning Cash by Wolf Richter • Sep 13, 2024 • 137 Comments Households’ money market fund & CD balances rise to a record $7.4 trillion; “savings” are far from depleted, they’re bigger than ever.
Our Drunken Sailors Are at it Again, Not at All in the Mood for a Slowdown or a Recession by Wolf Richter • Aug 30, 2024 • 161 Comments Inflation-adjusted consumer spending jumped. They splurged on durable goods. And still saved some. In response, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow jumped.
