Credit Defaults At Decade Highs! What Happened To America First?

James Kaufman, World News Report today. Credit defaults at decade highs. What happened to Make America First? Since last fall, we have repeatedly flagged the consumer and private credit sectors growing vulnerabilities. Consumer debt has ballooned to over $18.19 trillion in just a few years. In February, the red flag got about as red as it gets. cascading defaults and widespread contagion it's just gotten worse since then obviously if someone can't pay a debt it causes a domino effect in the economy which means the person that he owed can't pay their debts and so on and so on we had a wave of credit providers unleash their PR teams and the story slipped off the lips of the mainstream media and TV talking heads it remains top of the mind for traders as we most recently noted strain is spreading across private credit portfolios with some of the largest funds taking write-downs and warning about problem loans as the industry faces its biggest challenge in over a decade private credit like credit cards and Home loans and automobile loans are in big trouble and many lenders have reported that borrowers either stop making payments or that they believe the borrower may soon default. Others deny it or are trying to deny it. I don't think there's a lot of denial anymore though. Fitch Ratings warned last week that private credit defaults had hit a new record high in July. Much of the pain is concentrated in loans extended between 2020 and 2021 when rates were near zero and private equity valuations were elevated. Imagine lending money today via any type of loan when the 0% interest loans are slipping through the cracks. Today's higher borrowing costs or interest rates that have shot up and will continue to rise have starved some businesses from investing and individuals from applying for credit of any kind. Businesses and individuals are using all the cash that they can generate to pay interest to lenders, which means it's only a matter of time before we see more defaults, although we're seeing all-time highs right now. Industry titans acknowledge that bankruptcies and restructuring, climbing to all-time highs as well. Individuals are conserving what capital they have and maintaining themselves in a more defensive and risk-adverse posture. Experts reported underwriting wasn't as good as it should have been when these loans were made. They weren't very picky in making these loans, which has led to this cascading default effect. The bottom line is simple. Situation in private and consumer credit continues to worsen and interest rates are set to raise in the near-term future like as in maybe next week god bless you guys i know everyone's straining just to keep their heads above water please make sure to give us a thumbs up and please share god bless