The fact that you need to refer to the pandemic as a stability point tells me everything I need to know about your knowledge of statistics and the economy.
The debt curve is tilted up dude... Pandemic anomaly is effectively canceled out. Household debt is increasing That is a bad thing. The idea that households and managing them successfully ignores the fact that most people need two paychecks plus to manage those things. The man hour load which is the only true measure of the economy has reached its limit. This is not an improvement.... This is only a fancy word Play designed to hide the real problem. I do my own research press into person and never trust anything I see printed by the government regardless of who who is in office.
I am not referring to the pandemic as a stability point. Delinquencies are lower now than before Covid. That is the high-water mark of the Trump administration. The whole Covid thing was a damn joke when it comes to the economy. Trump all but dropped cash from helicopters attempting to prop up the economy. When unemployment was at a record level incomes INCREASED due to government payments. That was some sick ass shit and our debt took a huge hit.
And I am not buying the whole two income household bullshit. One job, one family, period. My daughter-in-law is quitting her job to be a full-time mom. She has a masters degree in nursing. But my son is now making more than both of them made under the Trump administration.
I believe most of what we are seeing here is the transition of the economy, from Boomers being the majority to Millennials being the majority. Boomers are damn clueless when it comes to money, coddled their entire lives, first by their parents and then by the government, they have no clue. I mean can you say "doughnut hole"? What happened to it?
Millennials, on the other hand, they don't miss a trick. They purchase everything with a credit card, amass the reward points, and pay them off every month. That is a big part of the increase in consumer debt. I do the same. My debit card never leaves the wallet, and my checking account grows throughout the month until I pay off all those credit cards. Then the cycle starts all over again, except the reward balances continue to grow.
Here is the reality. Consumers have more available income than at any point during the Trump administration. Rather it is the changes in Medicare prescription drug coverage, or increased earnings, they have more disposable income than at any point in history. I go to the grocery store too, the difference is, I was raised in the business. I know the ins and outs intimately. What I see are smart ass shoppers, bagging the specials for the basics and splurging when it comes to special events. Prime tenderloin at fifty bucks a pound, they don't even bat an eyelash. Bone-in chicken breast at ninety-nine cents a pound, they load up. Egg prices are down, butter is cheap, and ground beef is going for half what it was during the pandemic.
Here is the thing. If the Republican party had any sense they would kick Trump to the curb and move on. But Trump is the consummate con man and that is precisely what the Republican party needs, a con man. I mean maybe Trump can run the government from his jail cell at Butner, I am sure they have FOX news on the television there. And he could probably order McDonald's through door-dash. Not that much different than the White House.
Two hundred years from now, when we are all long dead and gone, this period in American History is going to be a turning point not seen since the Civil War. We are on the cusp of greatness, but it doesn't lie in the MAGA movement. We are at a crossroads. Either we move forward, leverage our gains, and continue to dominate the world, or we regress, into our selves, and quickly become a third world country. At the moment, it is a toss-up. I hope that changes come next November.
www.investing.com
