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The US Deleveraging Is Now Over
Today the Fed released its quarterly Flow of Funds report, also known as the Z.1., which is mostly tracked to show quarterly changes in consumer net worth (and which we find far more valuable to show changes in shadow banking liabilities - more in that in a later post). So while in Q4 household net worth did increase by $1.2 trillion to $58.5 trillion, all of this change, and then some, was purely driven by the central bank induced ramp in the stock market: $1.3 trillion of the $1.2 trillion increase in Net Worth was from the change of value in equity shares at market value which at December 31 was $17.3 trillion. In other words, the illusion of wealth is and continues to be merely a iCTRL+P keystroke away. Yet the one finding that is truly surprising is that in Q4 for the first time since Q1 2008, debt across all holder classes increased: debt held by Households, Nonfinancial corporate business, nonfinancial noncorporate business, state and local governments and of course the Federal government, all rose in the quarter. In other words, the US deleveraging is now over as everyone adds debt for the first time since before the crash. The credit bubble is now officially back.
Here is the sequential change in credit market debt for all domestic non-financial sectors:
And a chart showing the assets and liabilities of the US household since 2004.
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God I sure hope so.
And MAYBE we put a few caps in the tax collector's asses... If we're feeling generous...
Welcome back MC.
Impeachment resolution yesterday supported by both parties a good start:
http://bit.ly/soSVUh
Dis-arming the populace? How many people do you know that actually own a weapon? And most Americans are too fat and lazy to even give a shit. They just go along with whatever Dear Leader says through the Propaganda Ministry and take it as law.
Everyone around me has several. Most of us have served or are still in the reserves. One thing sheeple seem to discount is a military takeover. People forget that for all our military might, the U.S. military is still a volunteer military. I don't worry about the lazy, they will be dispensed with quickly, especially if what you say is true and they will simply follow their "dear leader" into the meat grinder.
Fair point. It will be ugly...
As long as you all take your oath seriously, please get 'er dun, and soon.
Its the only way out at this point. Im not optimistic.
This is my hope, actually. That a few generals realize their oath to the constitution forbids taking orders from a Kenyan born puppet of bankers. I think our soldiers have a lot more integrity than any politician or business person. Go sit those traitors in the corner and restore democracy.
A weapon? Not many.
Several weapons? In my circle about 20-25, and usually they have at least four or five. Sort of like how some people store party hats. Come on over, everybody gets one!
That will be the moment you can run out and burn your credit up...the jig will be up when they come get your heaters....of course the Taxi might take you past the mall to the FEMA camp.
You forgot Hungary. I cashed out my IRA as well. Better to get something now to buy more bullion with than to be forced into US treasuries like the sheep.
Thomas, I'm getting ready to cash out my IRA. May I ask how bad of a hit you took, percentage-wise with the cash out and the taxes later? I figured about 30%.
for me it was p a i n f u l........all depends too on total income for the year....could throw you into a higher tax bracket. But heck...rather have something than nothing.....would have had to pay taxes anyhow...plus with the dollar devaluing...
hope that helps.
Exactly right. All you youngsters need to realize that making money is only half the battle. Keeping it is the other. I live frugally. Drive a Honda Civic but could pay cash for a Porshe. Thats the way our tax system works. You need expenses but for the frugal its tough.
I had a good year last year so I waited until 2012 clicked over on the calender. I suspect my hit will be around 40% depending on how much expense I can run up on my business. If I pulled it last year it would have been 50% easy.
10% early withdraw penalty (depends on numerous factors)... rest is taxed at your marginal rate for ordinary gains.
You'll likely be required to file estimated taxes at the end of the quarter you pull the money out... so be forewarned... You should get a gross check from your administrator... it will be up to you to pay the tax... this might take some effort on your accountant's part, so be sure to get the green light before hand as well as seek any tax reduction tips (e.g. wait until next year if you had a lot of income this year, but don't expect to have as much next year).
Good luck in the footrace.
You pay a 20% penalty IN ADDITTION TO your normal marginal rate.
They use the retirement funds to bail the banks, raise interest and leave you with a big debt and high interest. See Hungary, Ireland, Greece, Portugal etc (all to different degrees).
What's in your wallet???
What a handsome avatar (I'd play sandwich with Jon Hamm any time he'd like).
Don Draper/Mad Men is a great metaphor for the Fed and the whole economy.
+100 on the DOW today for Europhoria, another +100 at least tomorrow based on Hopium goodness of jobs report Im sure will beat wildly again all experts forecasts. Wow just great.
Dear Dawg,
You ever get the feeling that we are watching this thing too closely? The ride is rough, in part, because of our awareness of each twist and turn. I am not saying stick our heads in the sand, but I am getting outrage fatigue.
I do NOT follow the Greece/Euro machinations in their minutiae. I just scan the headlines as they occur. Upcoming countries will be the default du jour so why waste time on the small stuff? Soon Portugal, Spain, Ireland, ad infinitum....
When the focus is fully on the U. S. my ears shall perk up as needed.
Very sane strategy. Because I am getting close to being finished with building my house, I don't have the time to rubber neck as much, so I have had to pull my head out of it some. It has been a good thing for me. All of the stories about Greece are fictions designed to keep chaos at bay. The flood gates will come open, maybe not there, may be Japan, where things get so bad you just can't cover it up any more. I think it will be a long, fairly steady decline, punctuated with waterfall crises (and solutions) that hasten things along a bit (and recoveries too). But the general trend line will be down and decline.
I agree MisCreant. I have enjoyed your commentary going on two years now. You added value and don't feel guilt for taking care of yourself and family. We do what we can do. We don't run the empire.
The global empire is breaking apart into three competing superpowers which is America, China and Russia. These three will compete (war) and the cycle of centralization will begin again. It's our evolutionary physics. If we're fortunate the fatality rate will be 10%. If not 35%. Mental toughness to know better times will come and a little physical prep will make the difference of making it or not. The next high time of quantum physics, extended longevity, nano tech all seem worth it to struggle towards.
It is all certainly fascinating but the added stress sucks. At least I am not bored. Irrelevance is a fate worse then death. Good luck and God bless!
Thanks for stopping to post! Same to you and yours.
When it's Japan or the UK, perk your ears up. We would be on deck or in the hole. Go to 100% PMs at that point. Probably many years off, given that it's taken 2+ years just for Greece... and that one ain't over by a long shot.
And are the banks lending or is that a student loan mirage? If the government is the lender of last resort(with recourse loans too boot) that doesn't mean private credit is flowing. If unemployement is rising and defaults are rising the loans are just going to money heaven and not generating interest or inflated money supply.
Lending doesn't not guarantee they get it back-or are we pretending all loans are equal. Is everyone being in credit card debt, student loan debt going to solve the problem of too much debt overall from kids to sovereigns?
Next downwave-tomorrow or in 10 years will close the curtains on the private loan kabuki show.
We're adding debt again? Why, that must mean we are RICH again!
Ooh, I feel so...bullish!
Makes me want to max out all my credit cards at Apmex and Cabela's and then default on all of it and go off the grid. This country is fucked.
Credit bubble? How else are we supposed to buy iJunk ??
anybody else getting "pop ups" when you mouse over Durden's redirects in his articles?
You sure this isn't just peeps having to charge for gas now ?
http://fiatflaws.blogspot.com/2012/03/uga-vs-gld.html
"the fatal conceit"
Managaing structural problems with public programs....Hayek said, "that doesn't work."
The public programs are the structural problems. Time to double-down on stupid!
Volume is sure kicking ass today! Spynet is busy passing that hot potato back and forth between all 6 participants!!
Oh and btw wtf does this inflated shit have to do with boosting household wealth as they are reporting today? Good lord. And of course Apple is fucking everywhere.
Leveraging will be "over" when all the bad debt is cleared and all those bank "assets" are marked to real market values, price in gold. Pricing anything in fiat is futile.
There has definitely been a turnaround in a year but credit/debt is still in negative territory according to Fed data-
http://bit.ly/xm6fVs
Consumer loans have turned positive-barely-
They have a long way to go before they hit the60 yr. average-
The last burst in 2010 was wicked and short lived-
http://bit.ly/wffJ8j
All these stupid, lazy, greedy, useless assholes fucking around with with all the worthless paper money never produced a fucking thing. But, they comsume the shit out of it.
You do have a way with words.
Sorry, left out my guestion.
Who needs the fucking useless assholes?
My answer: Nobody that I can see.
On to the Crackup-Boom!! YeeeeHawww
Triple Curve bitchez
But my government told me the only way to reduce debt is through more debt! Not to mention My Old iPad is 15 months old - who can expect me to play angry birds with a standard definition screen? Oh, and that money I was saving due to "strategically" not paying my mortgage is mysteriously not going as far as it used to...
The US deleveraging is over..... Ok.
Cash out your money markets, CDs, savings accounts and buy PMs, home repairs, G&A, food, land etc. Inflation, bitchez.
wimpynomics
You guess where the trillion of student loans went:
http://blog.boxee.tv/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/apple.jpg
Oh my god, what a lot of bloody sheep. If that does not have "soylent green" written al over it, than I don't know what does. I've got my apple laptop, now define me, please.
A Squid with an Apple laptop
Careful, many universities include a laptop with the cost of admission and you are required to bring them to class. Apple may have cut them a deal.
But it is a freaky sight.
French government likely to provide all school children with iPad inside of 2 years. Sorry I have no link, but French friends up in arms following communication from kids school. If it was the UK they would finance it by selling schools sports fields for development into junk food malls.
Yep that's the Missouri School of Journalism, the school has a deal with Apple to provide all the students with their craptops.
If you pay off your credit card every month does the pre-payoff balance get counted?
Let's just have a look at TODAY in Obama's America:
- Gallup: unemployment 9.1%
- Government sets record monthly deficit of 229 billion
- Sebelius, running arguably the most powerful government agency quoted as saying "no idea" if Obamacare adds to deficit
- News hits that Obama trying to make deal with Israel where we give them bunker busters and they wait till after election day to start the war
- Obama lobbying against Keystone pipeline in favor of wind and solar energy which has proven to be a total disaster
- Wash Post reports over half of Obama top donors given plum jobs
- Panetta says 'international permission' trumps 'congressional permission' for military action
And this is only today, which is not over yet.
Thanks, Drudge...
Agreed - much of this came from Drudge. A couple from other sites. When I looked again, I realized Drudge had all the stories there too.
Thank God we have SOMEONE willing to report the truth instead of sugarcoating this wretched administration's hourly failures.
And thank God we're still able to talk about this without being arrested. But for how much longer?
I hear No doc loans are back. Max it out and buy gold and silver. Then default. Round #2 of gaming the system.
Default only after you tragically lost all your gold overboard in a boating accident in a very, very deep lake.
So, since credit expansion is "necessary" for job creation... when am I gonna get a job?
"Jobs" will be handed out at your Regional Federal Assistance Office---go to Room 1A and wait with the rest of the shlubs for re-indoctrination.
Deleveraging is not over yet for all Americans. Just paid off my house, the last of our debt, and it feels great. Now our property tax is our biggest annual expense. :-(
Tax is nothing else than debt with the government. Forget it, you will never be free.
Here, Here. when Tyler says its over. Its over
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/us-deleveraging-now-over
Beware of loop effect
We merely report what the Federal Reserve, which never lies to anyone, has indicated, in pretty charts.
Buy buy buy!
Go into debt and buy those houses and iGizmos.
My retirement depends on you suckahs leveraging up.
A good friend of mine just bough a Porsche Boxster. He and his wife rent, have no assets, and carry $80K on their credit cards. They are real Americans! The rest of you are fricking un-American skinflint bitchez.
A house near where I live got multiple offers and sold above asking. Visiting a friend's house there was a feeding freenzy over the house 2 doors down that was for sale.
What an ironic headline (for me anyways). I just had the spouse file BK 13, as I was finally able to convince her that we don't need credit (at our income level), nor do we want it, cash & carry only. When I told her the banks have been fucking her for years (hopefully figuratively), she didn't get it. Then, little by little, fee by fee, she started asking a couple questions. She still doesn't "get it", but like most Americans, her reply is always (literally): "What can I/we do?"
I told her to give the banks the middle finger years ago. Of course, like most Americans, she believed she would be shamed for filing a BK. I of course said, fuck them, anyone that thinks that is a fucking moron. She really doesn't like when I tell her I think CONgress Members and Bankers should be hanging from lampposts. I tried explaining her debts were in fact contracts with banks, the same fucking banks that are robbing millions of Americans today (including our children), not some "moral" obligation, it either makes sense to pay or it doesn't. I finally got through.
So the headline hits home. My wife will be paying a fraction of what she (we) owed for the next five years, which I'm ok with, as it frees up cash to hedge with. She's also starting to get that nobody is untouchable in their jobs. We have seen a whopping seven within our circle get pink-slips, all in career management/executive level jobs. I told her to tell her friends to send a "fuck you letter" to the banks as well through their own respective attorney's.
Deleverage indeed.
I try as much as possible not to be in debt, i would rather DIE to owe any mother fucker in this world a single dime (thats for me anyway) ...
however i dont blame anyone for stacking debt if you want to buy the necessary things, and i dont blame anyone who takes on debt to bring downthose corrupt leechy banks, who the fuck in his right mind would ever wants to pay 20% interest on credit cards when his deposit yields nothing.
In my view, TPTB are scared shitless from the revolutions that happened in the Middle East, so they are trying to sedate the masses with free money to spend on drinks, hookers & entertainment. you know the saying give em "bread and circus". but it wont work, because Inflation will make sure that it bankrupts everyone and make the corporatocracy rich (WHICH WAS IN WORK FOR THE LAST 3 YEARS AND PEOPLE STILL THINK WE ARE NOT YET IN INFLATION, THE PEOPLE IN ME FELT IT, MAYBE IT'S ABOUT TIME WE FEEL IT TOO"
that's why they are trying as much as they can to pump the positive news about a healthy economy roaring bacK.. IT WONT WORK!
i wish you guys the very best, and i hope all your predicaments are solved.
and +1,000,000 for the "Fuck you letter"
I hate to burst your bubble man but the Middle East uprisings are CIA and MI6 operations. The people of Israel are being set up for destruction. The muslim brotherhood is a MI6 creation just like al qaueda is a CIA creation. The rabbit hole is deeper. Keep digging. I agree on everything else.
I sorta agree with you but not to the full extent Thomas.. Of course there was false flags by Israel, but the whole revolution did not start by the CIA or the MI6 (Opportunists jumped in after the Tunisian & the Egyptian revolutions) and of course any one who had interests will be involved CIA/Blackwaters Xe/Mossad / Saudi Arabia / Iran / Arms Blackmarket / TPTB seizing the ousted money etc.
It's a big cluster fuck.
But lets come back to the very very very basics on how it all started, it started with Muhammad Bozizi in Tunis who doused himself with Gasoline (it was cheap back then) and immolated himself since he was humiliated by the police for not letting him sell his veggies in the market.
and then measure that on nations which were suppressed by their leaders ..ne way it a big topic :)
we always dig :>)
If you make people desperate they will do desperate things. I agree. War with Iran is a bad idea. This is my greatest concern. It must be avoided. Nothing good will come out of it for the American people. If this inevitable war happens I will have to expedite my expatriation plans. I am not ready yet. I have more bullion to accumulate.
Deleveraging may be over,
but Impeachment is just beginning:
http://silversenator2012.blogspot.com/
Well the deleveraging is not finished yet. The flow of funds does not show the derivatives because they do not have to be reported in US. You can find them burried in the Comptroller of the Currency's web site if they affect bank credit so you only get part of them. Those figures come off the banks "call report".
So we are not quite done. I think about $ 700 trillion notional and we might be in better shape. :)
$707,568,901,000,000: How (And Why) Banks Increased Total Outstanding Derivatives By A Record $107 Trillion In 6 Months
Thanks Tyler :)
If this market was strictly regulated the PDs would die. Its the heart and lungs of financialised economy along with the carry trades offered to HFs type speculation. This has to die for the real economy to live.
I'd be very curious to see what these charts would look like excluding say, the wealthiest 5% of the population.
In a Forbes article not too long ago (http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/12/14/six-waltons-have-more-wealth-than-the-bottom-30-of-americans/), to downplay the enormous wealth of the Walton family, they pointed out that anyone with a $10 bill and no debt has a higher net worth than a good 25% of the country combined (thereby demonstrating how easy it was to be wealthier than 30% combined, as the Waltons are). I suspect the charts would be very different once you skim off the billionairs and 100+ millionaires...
I better hurry up and buy that new house... Will need something to keep up with inflation...
What good is money in equities when people are charged 1.5%-2% to invest, and then taxed out the ass to take any of the money out? That is, assuming it went somewhere in 10 years besides down or break even.
Investing in equities for the average household is a sham, a confiscatory tar pit of: fees, taxation, confiscation, and "vaporization".
Fuck those people, and fuck Wall Street.
What happens to the bottom chart Net Worth line if you adjust for inflation?
(I can hear George Costanza now: "I was in the pool!")
It's the first step in extending economics into the "nano" realm. Nanodollars, nano-net-worth, nano-creditworthiness, nano-bonds, and the nanowealth.
Oh give me gold lots of gold from the crusted earth beneath, throw silver in. It will keep my head dry when the rain comes from the sky, I'm gonna win!
Whatever happend to once bitten, twice shy.
They had a bad accident in a nightclub fire some years back.
We dont listen to them anymore. Dumb & dumber give funner advice.
Can I borrow a nickle for a hamburger today which I will gladly pay you back on Tuesday?
Undulating Stimpyfication.
Anyone have any suggestions for a good Bankruptcy attorney in the Southern Illinois/ St. Louis area? Serious question.
Don't look back!
It's been a hectic day for me so maybe I'm burnt but what the hell are you talking about? Are you saying "do it and don't look back"???? If so, I agree wholeheartedly, it's convincing my wife that this is the best course of action that has been the most difficult aspect so far.
Anyone have any referrals for a BK attorney in the St. Louis area????
Bueller????
legalzoom
That's exactly what I'm saying. I have a friend who owns the only succesful business in town "Brand Spankin' Used" . Even her 2nd hand store is going tits-up. The population of the town is down so much that even her store is now suffering. She informed me yesterday that she has in excess of $30,000 on her cc's. I told her to "...go BK, darlin'. And don't look back."
Do it, man. This is what its for and imagine your relief. Just be sure to learn from the experience.
Awesome we are in complete agreeance!!!! I am trying sooooo hard to educate my wife but the brain washing over the past 38 years is hard to break through. She wan'ts me to sell all my gold and diamonds to get out of debt simply because she is afraid to live without credit for five years or so. For fucks sake it's insanity!!!! Now all I need is someone to recommend a worthwhile BK attorney in my area?!?!?
BTW thanks for the support I really appreciate it. I better be well on my way to chapter 7 within 6 months.
My father filed bankruptcy under the old rules. Next day he was driving around in a brand new Cadillac on terms. When I asked "how?" he said he was a better credit risk now because he could not file bankruptcy again for 7 years. So check around with others who have filed bankruptcy.
By the old rules I mean prior to 2005 or whenever they made some minor changes to the rules.
The best idea of all is to live without credit forever.
Winning! The Fed achieves its goal! (sigh of relief!) The Helicopter rules the WORLD!
Unscientifically, I know a number of my friends are, indeed, levering up. Poor bastards.
Thank God - oops, I mean Bernanke!
Everything is now back to normal & prosperity can resume where it left off in '07/'08.
I understand this is very high (259 uSv/h)
March 07, 2012 (Wednesday)
Radiation measured in the waters and air near the No.1 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (Source: Tokyo Electric Power Co. TEPCO)
No.1 Plant : Air dose ? ?southern side of The main office: 500 meters north-west of the Unit 2 . 259 ?Sv/h Time:09:00 Mar.07, 2012 ?near the West Gate : 1,100 meters west of the Unit 2 . ? 9.2?Sv/h Time:09:00 Mar.07 , 2012 Winds: westerly 4.3 m/shttp://www9.nhk.or.jp/kabun-blog/500/112214.html
bubble days are back, just in time to re-elect the radical Obama, coincidence?
Meanwhile, Uncle Sam ran the largest monthly deficit EVER in February at $229 billion.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/8/govt-sets-record-deficit-...
This is so FUBAR!
Yes, loading up the card to pay for heating oil, groceries and gasoline shows a boom. Instead of paying by check or AMEX, people are barely staying above drown level by using 20% Jamie Dimon loans. I'm gonna buy S&P futures tonight.
Tyranny by hack economists.
i can't even believe what i saw at kroger. someone paid for an entire cart of food with an EBT card, with the exception of bacon which they paid for with a $100 dollar bill.if that wasn't enough, i saw this person again afterwards, in the parking lot at a handicap space, loading said groceries into a late model(say 2009-2011) Mercedes!
holy fuckall we're doomed.
Those EBT generational people are on a short time frame,thats when things get intresting.
Here is a story that will get under your skin:
Michigan Lottery Winner Using Food Stamps Despite $1M Jackpot
The Huffington Post
By Harry Bradford
3/8/2012 10:39 am
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/07/amanda-clayton-michigan-lottery...
I just had a person driving a late model Mercedes ask me for gas money. Poor dumb bastard.
On the household assets chart I don't see a categoty for gold.
You mean credit is not money....?
Now you tell me.
Mom.........is the word.
String together all these old fuckers that dragged us into this mess and shoot 'em off into space, like space monkeys. For the greater good of humanity.
They had their fill and fucked the rest of us. Easy credit with a rigged game and no real competion for 60 years. They had easy mode America and still expect 'freeness' while the rest of us carry them. No need to spend 800 billion a year on medicare to keep em alive. Fuck em.
You have not identified the root cause correctly. YOu're watching too much faux network.
I know the root causes. I just blame these old asses because they were complicit in hastening the fall of this country. They turned a blind eye to what was and is right infront of them in exchange for a fat check and easy jobs and an easy lifestyle.
How are they any better than the trash "elite"?
You've gotta burn out the rats and throw out the trash before you can rebuild anything.
The junkie is just as guilty as the dealer.
You don't get it. That's divide and conquer, man. Blame the old folks so dot gov can get away with screwing them over. It'll work too, because of sheeple like you.
News just in ...
(http://www.ocregister.com/articles/businesses-343509-bankruptcy-february...)
U.S. bankruptcies up 19% in a month
*******
That is mega deleveraging--
Deflation for the lender and inflation for the defaulter-
Impeachment resolution was filed yesterday:
http://bit.ly/soSVUh
The real truth......
http://news.yahoo.com/jobless-claims-rise-8-000-last-week-133410974.html
terrorism 1. a method of government or of resisting government involving domination or coercion by various forms of intimidation
Have we been sleeping?
When I was in college I had a bumper-sticker that read, "I love my country, but I fear my government." That's more true now than ever. No one does terrorism better than the American government. They strongly urge us to be prepared for natural disasters, then make laws where we can be incarcerated on suspicion of terrorism for having more than a seven day supply of food. What's worse, we sit by and watch passively as we get closer and closer to the return of the Feudal System.
Are we going to sit by, apathetic to Big Brother's assumption of power?! Are we all content to be cow-eyed sheep, mindlessly herded? You have opposable thumbs for a reason! Put down your electronic toys, take off your leash- WAKE UP!!!
The OWC movement was a joke. Why were we not on the White House lawn shouting our outrage and DEMANDING change? Occupy your life. Our government is OURS. If a bunch of filthy, stoned hippies could exact change, why can't we? I fear too many of us are content to remain cow-eyed sheep, following the constant barage of look-over-here tactics of distraction, and believing their obvious pretty lies. If you believe it's all going to be okay, that it doesn't matter that there's no gold in Fort Knox, if you haven't already begun preparing for the inevitable economic crash, your fate as a peasant is sure.
Tyler Durden: Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think every thing you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned- Tyler. (Palahniuk)
http://youtu.be/2N8gJSMoOJc The Day the Dollar Died
http://youtu.be/Xbp6umQT58A The Story of Your Enslavement
How can something be over that was never allowed to run it's course. It's not over it was never allowed to fully happan.
I am assuming the increase in debt is because people have no choice, they are borrowing to survive.
Or is the correct assumption that people are more confident now and borrowing to buy more iPads etc?
Or there is easy money available again?
Has the gumint commented on why debt is now increasing?
I was paid up on my house, decided last month that was CRAZY, doing a 140K 15 year mortgage at 3.125% I think it is a decent inflation hedge. At least it offsets some of my risk in the market.
Unless you can invest the 140k for more than the paymets (which you can't), it is a losing bet. Stupid is as stupid does.