News Story of the Day: Credit card rates are at their highest levels in history, says a new report from the Federal Reserve.
According to the numbers, Americans pay about 17% on average in interest on credit cards. This could explain the disappointing retail sales figures from April, which highlighted that shoppers were spending less. With the rising monthly borrowing costs, Americans may not have wanted to take the risk.
But that doesn’t mean the country is ditching plastic. It is estimated that two-thirds of the nation has at least one credit card in the household.
Here is more data from CNBC:
The Federal Reserve’s recent rake hikes have caused an increase in borrowing rates across the board, with credit card rates well above other forms of debt. For instance, the average 60-month auto loan rate is around 5.2% and the personal loan rate is about 10.4%, according to the Fed.
The Fed’s short-term lending rate is now targeted between 2.25% and 2.5%. However, it has gone up nine times since December 2015 and has triggered increases across the board in consumer debt instruments, due in part because it costs banks more to borrow.
Another potential warning sign to watch is credit card delinquencies. In the first quarter, the amount of people unable to make a credit card payment hit the highest level in seven years, according to a report by the New York Fed this week, using Equifax data. People between the ages of 18 and 29, so-called millennials, drove the spike in overdue payments.
Chart of the Day: Don’t think tariffs have raised prices? Goldman Sachs put together this chart that examined how import levies affected overall consumer prices.
Illustration of the Day: Speech is violence. Speech is sexist. Speech is homophobic. Speech is Islamophobic. Speech is anti-Semitic, but only if it is uttered by white supremacists, not Muslim extremists or someone on the intersectionality curve. That’s the mind of your typical feminist.
Quote of the Day: With the U.S.-China trade kicking up a notch, here is a superb quote from the great Murray Rothbard:
“The tariff principle is an attack on the market.… It is a goal that, if realized, would spell poverty for all.… It would be a regression from civilization to barbarism.”
Tweet of the Day: Just when you thought feminists couldn’t get any crazier, here comes this headline:
Emily Ratajkowski Poses Nude To Punish ‘Old White Men’ For Alabama Abortion Law https://t.co/QcPBCenCGk
— The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) May 16, 2019
Let’s hope Monica Bellucci does the same thing!
Video of the Day: How exciting was it to see the great Thomas DiLorenzo appear on national television? This week, DiLorenzo was invited to the Fox Business Network to discuss CEO pay, and he went bridge!
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