For the Plantation Workers of Slavelandia, inflation and rising interest rates combined pushed U.S. credit card debt to a record $930.6 billion at the end of 2022. This was an 18.5 percent jump from a year previous, according to credit rating service TransUnion.

Equating to about $3,000 for every person in the U.S., the debt load got heavier as more people relied on credit cards to pay for basic essentials such as food and gas.

What would have been once condemned as a crime syndicate cost of borrowing money from the Mob, now that the Bankster Bandits control the nation, credit cards’ average interest rate is near 20 percent. And according to TransUnion, the average credit card balance was $5,805 at the end of last year.

At that interest rate, a person making minimum monthly payments would need 17 years to clear a $5,805 balance and would pay $8,213 in interest. 

“Whether it’s shopping for a new car or buying eggs, consumers continue to be impacted in ways big and small by both high inflation and interest rate hikes,” Michele Raneri, TransUnion’s chief U.S. researcher, said in a statement announcing the figures.

As more credit cards are issued, a larger proportion of cardholders are “subprime” borrowers, which are those with credit scores below 600.

The delinquency rate—cards with payments at least 60 days overdue—is increasing with the total debt load, especially as more young adults, inexperienced with credit, get cards of their own.

“The increase in delinquencies is something to watch,” Raneri said in comments quoted by CNBC.

“If unemployment goes up and we see a spike in delinquencies, that indicates a longer-term problem,” she noted.

TRENDPOST: It was former peanut farmer and U.S. President Jimmy Carter who sold out the public and supported the Bankster Bandits with his Monetary Control Act.

As William Greider noted: 

“A Democratic Congress and Democratic president (Jimmy Carter) enacted the Monetary Control Act of 1980 which removed all remaining controls on interest rates and repealed the federal law prohibiting usury (note that sky-high interest rates and ruinous predatory lending have been with us ever since). It was the 1980 legislation that took the lid off banking and doomed the savings and loan industry, the mainstay that used to provide housing loans and home mortgages. The thrifts were able to raise capital because they were allowed to pay a half percent more in interest to depositors. Bankers wanted them out of the way. The Democratic party obliged.”

TREND FORECAST: As we wrote in “More Americans Unable To Pay Off Credit Card Balances” (20 Sep 2022), with the government pouring some $8 trillion into consumer’s pockets as they fought the COVID War, the nation went on a spending spree buying stuff; then when lockdowns were lifted, consumers kept buying as though the fake money flow would continue, while also adding services and experiences—travel, dining out, yoga classes, concerts, and so on—to their shopping lists.

It was the wrong decision.

With corporate and government debt also at record levels, the global economic slowdown and looming recession will cost the economy jobs and send millions of households into arrears or bankruptcy.

TREND FORECAST: As interest rates rise and adjustable-rate credit cards adjust upward, more Americans will begin to miss payments, resulting in canceled cards, ruined credit, and revenue lost to banks.

As banks have with mortgages, card issuers will become much more selective and demanding in determining who qualifies as a cardholder. Many cardholders will be denied requests for limit increases, find their credit limits reduced, or see their cards canceled.