The GDP is a good INDICATOR, but it is a bad stand alone synonym for “the economy.”
To truly understand “the economy,” “economic well-being” etc., one needs to consider other factors chief among those are assets, liabilities savings etc…
As today’s figures show, household debt is rising more quickly than GDP, than inflation, than payrolls etc. etc.
I’m just glad to be one household that is moving in the opposite direction.
But it doesn’t take a whole lot of random conversations to know what the figures show.
Economy-wide, or just in the government we borrow 1.1X or 1.2X in order to increase one-time consumption 1X.
It’s not just the govvernment, itis about economic health.
Sure we consume more an more, (GDP) but that is a poor measure of economic health.
The economy is no longer an adding machine.
The economy is now a subtracting machine.
(@tnt )
Also from today’s report
Below are two graphics showing new loan deliquencies.
Here is the previous one (3 months old)
And this is from today’s report (notice the big uptick in the redline? Those lonas were already delinquent, but the previous administartion refused to report them to the credit bureaus.
More smoke and mirrors.
oops I posted this in the wrong section.
I doubt it matters.
It it does then I invite the MODs to move it.
The “other” Fed report today was mixed/positive with conusmers substantially reducing overall debt in 2 important categories
The NY Fed does a huge data dump of nationwide data from the credit reporting bureaus and found that in 1Q 2025:
It also found 9agan 1 Q 2025)
I hear inflation has eased to the lowest pace since 2021.
Nice!
But consider this
The report showed that overall household debt increased by $93 billion to $18.04 trillion at the end of 2024, an all-time high. Credit card balances rose by $45 billion from the prior quarter to reach $1.21 trillion at the end of December, which is also a record high.
Americans' credit card and household debt reach new record highs | Fox Business
Credit card debt rose about 5% (annualized),
and overall debt rose about 10% (annualized)
That’s quite a bit compared tothings like gdp or inflation growth.
It also means that if there are millions of people like you and @Guvnah , then the debt load of the in-debted class must have moved up even more than those raw numbers indicate.
And I see its effects on so many people I know.
It’s hard to watch.
So . . . you wold be opposed to a Fed policy that disoucrage savings and encouraged even more borrowing?
In my book, “fed policy” shouldn’t change my personal choices on debt and savings.
Well the Fed interprets,
(and has long interpreted)that
“maximum employment” means “We must minimize saving, maximize spending and debt.”
So it consistently intervenes by expandingits balance sheet and lowering rates. (It has a similar bad interpretation of "price stability.)
It has a similar interpretation
But the fed can’t force ME to minimize saving. Or to reduce my debt. Or to maximize my spending. That’s what I’m saying.
Lowering rates might (MIGHT) help me on my existing debts. But I still want zero debt in the end. So the lower rate (if it even applies to any of my debt) helps me in the short term by letting me apply more payment to principal.
