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Delinquency rates among American credit card holders are at an all-time high, while at the same time a record number of “active accounts” have “a balance of over $2,000,” according to a Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia report. We’re more than three years into the Biden presidency, so we all know where the blame lies. More from Bloomberg: Almost 3.5% of card balances were at least 30 days past due as of the end of December, the Philadelphia Fed said. That’s the highest figure in the data series going back to 2012, and up by about 30 basis points from...

President Biden’s new student debt relief plan is estimated to cost around $84 billion if it is implemented, according to a Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM) analysis released Thursday. PWBM analyzed the five components of Biden’s proposed plan, totaling the initiatives to $84.06 billion that could be implemented before the November election. The biggest cost of the plan is Biden’s proposal to cancel up to $20,000 for all borrowers who have a balance that has grown due to unpaid interest. Borrowers who qualify for the SAVE plan or other income-driven repayment (IDR) plans would get all of that balance wiped...

Washington continues to spend like deficits and debt don’t matter, and the politicians would rather you don’t know. For the record, the Congressional Budget Office reported Monday that the federal budget deficit for the first six months of fiscal 2024, ending in March, was $1.064 trillion. Enjoy it, because you’ll eventually pay for it in higher taxes. The problem isn’t a shortage of tax revenue, which rose 7% from a year earlier to $2.19 trillion. Individual income-tax and payroll-tax revenue both rose 6%, while corporate income taxes rose 35%. Is a 7% increase what President Biden would call a “fair...

On Monday, the Biden administration unveiled its new student loan debt proposal, which, if finalized, would eliminate some debt for as many as 25 million borrowers.These plans primarily target those with "runaway interest" and borrowers who have been making payments for two decades. Moreover, it aims to assist those eligible for forgiveness through income-driven repayment (IDR) schemes and individuals enduring financial hardship."The plans would give borrowers $20,000 in loan forgiveness for balances that have grown due to unpaid interest since entering repayment, regardless of income. Those who qualify for the SAVE IDR plan would get the full balance of their...

In a recent tweet, a talented financial analyst and investor stated: “The “debt is unsustainable” narrative has been around for 40 years plus. What’s astonishing to me is how the people who push this narrative never ask themselves, “Why has it been sustainable for so long?”.There is a widespread idea that the fiscal imbalances of a world reserve currency issuer would end in an Argentina-style bankruptcy. However, the manifestation of unsustainability did not even appear as drastic in Argentina itself. Hey, Argentina continues to exist, doesn’t it?Excessive public debt is unsustainable when it becomes a burden on productive growth and...

We are living in the USA where corruption, favoritism, open borders and an out-of-control Federal budget and debt are destroying this once great nation. Former Kansas City Fed President Thomas M. Hoenig was absolutely right when he said recently that The Federal Reserve panders to Wall Street, Congress and special interest groups, prioritizing immediate relief over financial stability. Bernanke’s zero-interest rate policies (ZIRP) and Quantitative Easing (QE) were short-term fixes that never went away. Indeed, since the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008-2009, US Dollar purchasing power is DOWN -32% and M2 Money is up a staggering 177%. While Yellen stuck...

The 75 largest cities in America were collectively $288 billion in debt at the end of fiscal year 2022... 53 major cities that do not have enough money to pay their bills. Yet all of them claimed their budgets were balanced, as is required by law. That means lawmakers understated each city’s debt by not including future costs like employee pensions and healthcare ... New York City has a taxpayer burden of $61,800, the largest by far despite being the most populous. The city has only six cents saved up for every dollar it will need to spend on retiree...

The Biden administration will soon roll out a sweeping new student loan forgiveness proposal that could impact millions of Americans. Despite its smaller scope than President Joe Biden’s first education debt relief plan that the Supreme Court ultimately blocked, this new aid package could still forgive the debt for as many as 10 million Americans, according to one rough estimate by higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz. Biden is planning to provide details of his new debt forgiveness plan during a speech Monday in Madison, Wisconsin, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The president likely wants to start forgiving debt...

Most readers regularly consume staggering numbers about our debt and deficit, but not all those that report this news will put those numbers in a perspective that provides meaningful context. I will try to do that here. The USA is on track to have a national debt of $35 trillion very soon, which is rising by $1 trillion about every 100 days. That’s $3.6 trillion every year. We’re no longer doling out free cash for COVID, so it’s a good assumption the $3.6 trillion additional annual debt is this administrations “business as usual.”According to Financebuzz total private wealth in the...

The US must be aware of and avoid Russian disinformation operations at all costs if it wants to maintain its Western values and help Ukraine win the war, conflict analysts argue."Basic facts are in question daily as the Kremlin floods the Western debate with its narratives," analysts at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in a March 27 report.The analysts said that "the notion that the war is unwinnable because of Russia's dominance is a Russian information operation, which gives us a glimpse of the Kremlin's real strategy and only real hope of success."For years, Russia has...

Joe Biden is demanding, and pronto, more of our tax money to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. He wants more from us—naturally—but America needs, as its first priority, to investigate and determine if the bridge’s destruction was in fact unintended… or malicious. Much documented evidence is emerging as to the bridge “accident” being in fact, a political, and likely international, cyber-attack. Whether or not this is so, something is off-kilter about the serial infrastructure fails happening all around us. It is time for a much closer look. As to Biden’s call for more cash, where are the...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Student loan burrowers could be missing out on a break through the Department of Education's Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan. "I have both loans for my graduate and undergraduate degree but if it can help me lower my payment that would be helpful," said borrower Peace Odili. The Department of Education said more people like Odili could be eligible for early loan forgiveness if they try to qualify for the SAVE plan. "It is very strenuous for a lot of people and finding resources like this to help us pay for it would be...

Governor Gavin Newsom bragged of a surplus, but California is seriously underwater. The next recession will hit the state extremely hard.Golden State Budget FantasyThe City Journal founder Ed Ring comments on the Golden State Budget FantasyWhile finalizing the upcoming fiscal year’s state budget back in May 2022, California governor Gavin Newsom boasted of an extraordinary projected surplus: $97 billion. The governor immediately collaborated with an enthusiastic state legislature to spend it all. Of course, new spending on new programs and benefits tends to become permanent.This has happened repeatedly in California. Between fiscal year 2012–13 and fiscal year 2022–23 (the year...

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has issued a stark warning about America’s escalating debt, which currently stands at a staggering $34 trillion and continues to grow. Fink cautioned that the nation’s trajectory could lead to a crisis reminiscent of Japan’s lost decade. He emphasized that Washington should not assume that investors will indefinitely fund the country’s fiscal deficit. In his annual letter to investors, Fink highlighted the recent three-percentage-point increase in U.S. Treasury yields to 4%, which reflects longer-term inflation expectations and the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes. He described this development as highly...

President Biden on Saturday signed a $1.2 trillion government funding bill to stave off a government shutdown, capping a frenetic sprint by lawmakers to pass the final batch of appropriations measures. Biden praised the measure as a compromise, and “good news for the American people.” “This agreement represents a compromise, which means neither side got everything it wanted,” Biden continued, emphasizing that it rejected “extreme cuts from House Republicans and expands access to child care, invests in cancer research, funds mental health and substance use care, advances American leadership abroad, and provides resources to secure the border that my Administration...

"More than half of the Republican conference voted against GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson's omnibus funding bill, rebuking the leader's efforts to avoid a shutdown ahead of Friday's deadline. The House voted on the spending package brokered by Johnson on Friday, passing the bill by a vote of 286 to 134. The bill needed 280 votes to pass. But while the legislation garnered enough bipartisan support to push it to the Senate, 112 House Republicans and 22 House Democrats voted against it. Only 101 members of Johnson's party voted in favor of the package. "

President Biden on Thursday took a dig at former President Trump over his financial issues after Trump’s lawyer said he can’t pay his $464 million bond. “I know not everyone’s feeling enthusiasm. The other day a defeated man … came up to me and said, Mr. President I’m being crushed by debt, I’m completely wiped out,” Biden said. “I had to say, ‘I’m sorry Donald, I can’t help you.’” Biden made the joke to a group of supporters at a campaign reception in Houston. Before the comment, he was saying the press doesn’t cover positive polls for him enough, including...

You might have missed it in the headlines, but US Bancorp recently initiated significant job cuts, with areas like talent acquisition and technology taking a hit. But what does this mean for the broader financial landscape? Well, let’s talk about multifamily commercial real estate (CRE) mortgages – a sector that’s been quietly raising red flags. While apartments have held up better than other segments like office and retail, cracks are starting to show, with some eye-popping defaults in recent months.

New York City is paying $387 per day to house and feed each migrant household in taxpayer-funded shelters. Over the course of a year this amounts to $141,255 per household. The median household income in the US is $75,000. A full-time minimum-wage job pays less than $15,000. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo) asked Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra "why workers who have to live on less should should be taxed so much for the less than lavish accommodations being provided for illegal immigrants?" Becerra said "we aren't letting New Yorkers bear all the burden of supporting these...

As Americans have continued to sound off over sticker shock on retail and grocery shelves, the U.S. Treasury secretary admitted Wednesday that her public predictions were wrong. "I regret saying it was transitory [inflation]. It has come down, but I think transitory means a few weeks or months to most people. And it's lasted longer than that," Janet Yellen told FOX Business’ Edward Lawrence in an exclusive interview. In early June 2021, Yellen had tamped down inflationary concerns, claiming rising costs and the contributing factors were "transitory," a term used to describe temporary market conditions. "We have in recent months...