Retail Sales in February Were Confusing by Wolf Richter • Mar 17, 2025 • 52 Comments Ecommerce sales jumped. General merchandise retailers, supermarkets, etc., booked solid gains. Lower prices cut gasoline & auto sales. But restaurants?
Will Economic Detox Lead to a Recession? Maybe Not. But a Long Deep Stock Market Rout Will (See Dotcom Bust) by Wolf Richter • Mar 14, 2025 • 219 Comments “We’re focused on the real economy,” Bessent said. “Ouch,” stocks said. Where did the Trump put go?
Money Market Funds & CDs: Americans’ $11-Trillion in Cash, Not Trash, Much of it Still Earning 4%+ by Wolf Richter • Mar 14, 2025 • 87 Comments Tsunami of cash is still washing over money market funds. But banks’ fight for deposits is over.
No, Consumer Spending Didn’t Plunge in January and Auto Sales Didn’t Collapse, or Whatever, But the Huge Seasonal Adjustments Might Have Gone Awry by Wolf Richter • Feb 28, 2025 • 89 Comments Year-over-year, consumer spending jumped by 5.6% and retail sales by 4.8% in January. So there’s that.
Our Drunken Sailors and their Credit Cards: Delinquencies, Balances, Burden, and Available Credit in Q4 2024 by Wolf Richter • Feb 19, 2025 • 39 Comments More people, more workers, higher incomes, more spending. Banks eager to lend at high rates and collect swipe fees.
Auto Debts, Auto-Loan-to-Income Ratio, Serious Delinquencies for Prime & Subprime: Our Drunken Sailors and their Auto Loans by Wolf Richter • Feb 18, 2025 • 61 Comments Subprime, which means “bad credit” and not “low income,” is always in trouble. But it’s only 14% of auto loans. Prime is in pristine condition.
Here Come the HELOCs: Mortgages, Housing-Debt-to-Income-Ratio, Serious Delinquencies & Foreclosures in Q4 2024 by Wolf Richter • Feb 15, 2025 • 68 Comments HELOC balances surged, mortgage balances barely budged: More households, more income, more housing debt.
Household Debts, Debt-to-Income Ratio, Serious Delinquencies, Collections, Foreclosures, Bankruptcies: Our Drunken Sailors’ Debts in Q4 2024 by Wolf Richter • Feb 13, 2025 • 114 Comments More people, more workers, more income, more debt.
Our Drunken Sailors Partied Massively in Q4, Propped Up GDP Growth. Debt-to-GDP Ratio Worsened to 121.8% by Wolf Richter • Jan 30, 2025 • 59 Comments Biggest consumer spending surge in nearly two years overpowered the drop in private domestic investment and change in private inventories.
Subprime, Prime, and Overall Auto-Loan Delinquency Rates: Why this Surge in “Subprime” Delinquencies when “Prime” Is Pristine? by Wolf Richter • Jan 22, 2025 • 55 Comments We’re in the 4th cycle of the subprime profit motive after auto-loan securitizations became a thing in the early 1990s.
