Post #4301501

American Economy #Winning Credit card balances that are 90 or more days delinquent hit 13.1% in Q1 2026, the highest level in about sixteen years. The last time it looked like this, the 2008 crisis was still unfolding. Student loan delinquency climbed to 10.3%, which means 7.7 million borrowers got their credit scores knifed for a degree that’s no longer connected to a future source of income. Auto loan delinquencies are at the highest level the New York Fed has ever recorded in its series, which goes back to 2003. 111M (42% of all U.S. adults) can’t pay their credit card bill in full each month. 68M are “debt-stressed,” meaning they’re using more than 30% of their available credit — a threshold that used to embarrass people and now describes almost a quarter of the country. 20M Americans are behind on utility bills. In 2024, power got shut off 13M times. That’s not one shutoff per person; that’s the same households getting cut, restored, cut, restored, cut. Foreclosure filings rose 26% in early 2026 and it’s not even because of mortgages. It’s mostly because of property taxes, insurance premiums that have gone completely feral, and HOA fees. #USpol