The Desire to Be “Your Own Boss” in America by Wolf Richter • Jun 9, 2024 • 124 Comments “You can’t always get what you want… but if you try sometimes, well, you might find, you get what you need…”: The Rolling Stones
Subprime Auto Loans Are Getting Messy by Wolf Richter • May 18, 2024 • 69 Comments Huge profits in subprime caused specialized dealers/lenders to take big risks, which came home to roost. But prime auto loans are in pristine shape
Who Fell Behind on their Credit Cards: Delinquencies, Balances, Burden, Available Credit, and the “Maxed Out” by Wolf Richter • May 16, 2024 • 99 Comments Only 18% of credit-card holders maxed out their cards, less than before the pandemic, but fell behind at a higher rate.
Here Come the HELOCs in Household Debt: Mortgages, Delinquencies, and Foreclosures by Wolf Richter • May 15, 2024 • 116 Comments If residential mortgages get messy, banks are largely off the hook this time.
Household Debt, Delinquencies, Collections, and Bankruptcies: The Free-Money Era Is Over for our Not So Drunken Sailors by Wolf Richter • May 14, 2024 • 60 Comments Everything got more expensive over the years, the population grew, so debts rose, but income rose too.
Money Market Funds, T-Bills, Large CDs, Small CDs: Americans Learn to Arbitrage the Higher-for-Longer Interest Rates by Wolf Richter • Apr 27, 2024 • 137 Comments There’s no need to still pay a “loyalty tax” to the banks.
Our Drunken Sailors Splurge on Services, Fixed Investment Surges. But Much-Worse Imports Drag Bigly on GDP. And there’s a Blip in Government Spending by Wolf Richter • Apr 25, 2024 • 113 Comments Re-accelerating inflation in Q1 hit “real” GDP growth. “Current-dollar” GDP growth only a hair slower than in Q4.
How the Huge Wave of Immigrants into the US in 2022 and 2023 Impacts the Employment Data of the BLS Household Survey by Wolf Richter • Apr 3, 2024 • 112 Comments The BLS uses the Census Bureau’s understated population estimates that ignore the surge of immigrants. But the CBO’s estimates pick them up.
Our Drunken Sailors Went Partying Again: Consumer Spending on Services, even Adjusted for Inflation, is Red-Hot by Wolf Richter • Mar 29, 2024 • 181 Comments They’re in absolutely no mood to slow down. And they still saved part of their income. So why should they even slow down?
It Sucks Being a Retailer in January and February. But Do Retail Sales Show Consumers Cut Back? by Wolf Richter • Feb 15, 2024 • 72 Comments A good time to look at seasonality and inflation/deflation in retail sales, especially as prices of goods have dropped.
