Never Save for a Rainy Day!
President Obama increased our debt more than $8 trillion - in part due to the financial crisis he inherited.
President Bush II increased our debt more than $6 trillion - in part due to the tech-stock crisis he inherited.
The slogan “never let a good crisis go to waste” is a popular one in Washington, D.C.
But our addiction to debt is not limited to government. Americans have been “spending like drunken sailors” for a long time.
According to the personal finance website The Balance, consumer debt hit a record of over $4.2 trillion in February 2020.
Consumer debt is made up of two kinds of debt: revolving, which is mostly credit card debt, and non-revolving, such car loans or college loans.
Revolving debt hit an all-time high in February 2020, just before pandemic struck, but it actually fell in 2020.
Thanks to the COVID-19 lockdowns that shut down so much of the economy, Americans slashed their spending in 2020 and used their credit cards less.
The bad news, reports the Balance, is that non-revolving debt - auto loans and college debt - have increased
Why?
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Copyright 2021 Tom Purcell, All Rights Reserved. Credit: Cagle.com
