From The Ramparts

Debt Servitude

Junious Ricardo Stanton

“Credit cards are a key element in the banking industry’s profits. At commercial banks, the average interest rate on credit-card plans is 15.1% and the average assessed interest rate is 16.9%, on $1 trillion in outstanding credit balances. This amounts to around $150 billion to $169 billion a year in interest income! These banks rely on consumers to spend money they don’t have.”  The State of American Debt Slaves Q1 2019 Wolf Richter  https://wolfstreet.com/2019/05/08/the-state-of-the-american-debt-slaves-q1-2019/

When the corporate media tells us the economy is booming and unemployment is at record lows, don’t believe the hype, it is disinformation! I certainly am not trying to be a Davy Downer and rain on anyone’s parade but the US economy ain’t all that, as we used to say. The corporate media rarely mentions the fact the US economy is propped up by massive debt: consumer debt, corporate debt, government debts, trade deficits and plain ol’ corruption.

Most of the US gross domestic product is fueled by debt. This means the goods and services produced in the US are driven by debt: loans to the businesses for operations, production, equipment, expansion and maintenance, loans to consumers in the form of car loans, student loans, mortgages, Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC), other purchases and of course government debt.

In the US, human beings are called consumers by the powers that be; probably because we overly consume resources, because our spending consumes us, shrinks our wealth and savings potential and puts us at the mercy of the lenders and economic circumstances like interest rates and availability.

            “Consumer debt is what you owe, as opposed to what a business or the government owes. It's also called consumer credit. It can be borrowed from a bank, a credit union, and the federal government. There are two types of consumer debt: credit cards (revolving) and fixed-payment loans (non-revolving). Credit card debt is called revolving because it's meant to be paid off each month. They incur variable interest rates that are pegged to Libor. Non-revolving debt isn't paid off each month.  Instead, these loans are usually held for the life of the underlying asset. Borrowers can choose between loans with either fixed interest rates or variable rates. Most non-revolving debt is auto loans or school loans. Although home mortgages are also an enormous loan, they aren't a type of consumer debt. Instead, they are personal investments in residential real estate… In March 2019 U.S. consumer debt rose 3.1% to $4.052 trillion. That surpassed last month's record of $4.042 trillion. Of this, $2.995 trillion was non-revolving debt, and it rose 5.0%. Most non-revolving debt is education and auto loans. In March 2019, school debt totaled $1.598 trillion and auto loans were $1.161 trillion. Credit card debt totaled $1.057 trillion, decreasing 2.5%. It exceeds the record of $1.02 trillion set in 2008. But credit card debt is only 26% of total debt. It was 38% of total debt in 2008.” https://www.thebalance.com/consumer-debt-statistics-causes-and-impact-3305704

US consumer debt is at crisis levels. “The average U.S. household with credit card debt has an estimated $6,9291 in revolving balances, or balances carried from one month to the next, the analysis found. This pernicious type of debt, which often comes with high interest rates that make it a challenge to pay off, can feel inescapable. About 1 in 11 (9%) Americans who have credit card debt say they don’t think they will ever be completely free of credit card debt, according to a NerdWallet survey conducted by The Harris Poll…In many cases; credit card balances represent only a fraction of a household’s debt. U.S. households with any kind of debt held an average of $135,768³ in outstanding debt, which can include mortgages and both transacting and revolving credit card balances.” 2018 American Household Credit Card Debt Study Claire Tsosie and Erin Issa https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/average-credit-card-debt-household/

Many Americans use their credit cards to maintain their lifestyle going deeper in debt each month; especially since wages in the US, for the most part, have remained stagnant (an issue politicians rarely address)!  As a result many feel they are trapped in an endless cycle of debt and if they fall behind they face imminent financial disaster.  US consumer debt is staggering. https://www.debt.org/faqs/americans-in-debt/

I highly recommend reading Mr. Walt Prescott’s book Debt Management By The Muscle: It’s Not a Novel It’s a Workbook. It’s available through Amazon https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AWalter+H.+Prescott&s=relevancerank&text=Walter+H.+Prescott&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1  Check it out it has great tips to help you get out of debt bondage.

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