This podcast looks at the rising number of consumers who have trouble to finance their loans on credit cards and cars. These rising "delinquency rates" were doubling since 2016 and are now higher than in the Financial crisis in 2008. Especially small banks lend to less creditworthy so-called "subprime consumers" because they can demand higher interest rates from these financially troubled individuals.
However, to understand why these "delinquency rates" are now higher than in the financial crisis a critical look at the inflation measuring method of the US becomes necessary. The hedonic quality adjustments of the Consumer Price Index, which removes the effect of quality improvement on consumer prices, is shrouding the fact that rising costs on mobility, food and health care outruns the raise of income for more and more US citizens. Forcing them to indebt themselves more and more to sustain their living standards.
You can find the transcript here.
Go to: What’s Behind the Subprime Consumer Loan Implosion?