Consumer debt hits record high of $4 trillion

[disneysteve]

Americans are carrying a record $4 trillion in debt. Total credit card debt is also at a record surpassing $1 trillion. Student loan debt stands at $1.5 trillion (not stated to be a record in the article I read).

[corn18]

And corporate debt is at a record, too. And the U.S. deficit. This will come home to roost in the next recession. Not sure how it will manifest itself other than default rates rising. I hope the banks try to remember what happened in 2008/2009 and behave. Ahhh, who am I kidding? Too big to fail.

[disneysteve]

And corporate debt is at a record, too. And the U.S. deficit. This will come home to roost in the next recession. Not sure how it will manifest itself other than default rates rising. I hope the banks try to remember what happened in 2008/2009 and behave. Ahhh, who am I kidding? Too big to fail.

Nobody learned anything from the last recession. All of the awful lending and borrowing practices died down for a little while and then gradually resurfaced. At some point in the next year or two, the bottom will drop out again and we'll repeat the cycle. Although I'm far from a market timer, I have trimmed back on our equity exposure over the past year and have been increasing our cash position. I'm 11 years closer to retirement than I was in 2008 so I'm not as carefree about having plenty of time to recover this time around, especially if the crash doesn't happen for another year or two.