US CREDIT CARD DEBT SURPASSES FINANCIAL CRISIS RECORD, AS STUDENT AND AUTO LOANS HIT NEW ALL TIME HIGH
Coupled with the monthly $8.3 billion increase in non-revolving credit, which also rose to an all time high of $2,834.1 billion…
… means that total consumer credit in June increased by $12.4 billion, slightly less than the $13.9 billion expected and modestly less than the $18.4 billion increase in May, to $3,855.8 billion, also a record high.
Taking a closer look at the quarterly update in non-revolving debt, we find that for another consecutive quarter, both student and auto loans hit record highs, of $1.450 trillion and $1.131 trillion respectively, although there does appears to be a modest slowdown in credit issuance for these two largest categories.
Considering the recent sharp revision to the US household savings rate, which wiped out $250 billion in personal savings with the stroke of an excel pen…
… the fact that US households increasingly have to rely on their credit cards to support their daily lives will hardly come as a surprise.