It’s becoming more obvious that Joe Biden will go down in history as perhaps the worst president ever, and a new report that dropped over the weekend will only strengthen that view.
Credit card defaults in the United States have reached their highest levels since 2010, according to a report released Sunday. The rising default rates indicate that many Americans’ incomes are failing to keep up with their spending and bill payments amid high interest rates and persistent inflation that remains above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. This, after nearly four years of inflationary ‘Bidenomics’ policies bolstered by massive spending bills passed by a Democratic-controlled Congress during Biden’s first two years in office.
Card lenders wrote off $46 billion in seriously delinquent loans during the first nine months of this year, marking a 50% increase compared to 2023, according to an analysis published by The Financial Times and based on industry data compiled by BankRegData. These figures represent the highest levels in 14 years, the report noted. Lenders typically write off delinquent debt, often after 120 days of nonpayment, when they determine that the borrower is unable or unwilling to repay the balance, Just the News reported.
Mark Zandi, the head of Moody’s Analytics, says high-income households are OK, “but the bottom third of U.S. consumers are tapped out. Their savings rate right now is zero.”
Meanwhile, journalist and historian George Packer, known for his work with The New Yorker, expressed his belief that the Democratic Party is facing inevitable decline following Biden’s disaster-filled term. During a discussion with Washington Week host Jeffrey Goldberg last week, Packer shared his outlook on the next election, stating his belief that the party is unlikely to defeat the next Republican candidate in 2028.
“So, I was standing in a giant crowd outside Madison Square Garden right before the election, trying to get in to hear the final Trump, yes, the big New York rally where all kinds of crazy things were being said. I couldn’t get in. There were too many people. But I had a maybe more interesting experience was I standing in a group of three guys who were Trinidadian immigrants who lived in Flatbush, which is a very black and Latino part of Brooklyn, immigrant part of Brooklyn. They were wearing full MAGA regalia,” Packer said.
“And I said, why are you here? Why are you for him? The price of eggs, we’re not respected around the world, and that stuff he says, we just don’t listen to it. We don’t take it that seriously. And, by the way, there are a lot of people like us in Flatbush. They just don’t wear the MAGA hats, but they’re there. They were right. And they have to be listened to and taken seriously and not told you have false consciousness, you’re voting against your interests, all the things that Democrats have said about people like that. How about hearing what they say and then thinking, how can we appeal to them without betraying our values?” he added.
“Do you think the Democrats are going to reform in order to beat the next Republican?” Goldberg asked. “I don’t think so,” Packer responded before going on to explain.
“I think it’ll take longer than that, because, first of all, I don’t see the immediate aftermath of the election moving in that direction. I don’t see a kind of party-wide sense we have to do something different, which is what happened after ’88, when, for the third straight time, a Republican wiped out a Democrat for president, and because these are entrenched ways of thinking and ways of organizing the party. And they can’t be uprooted quickly,” Packer explained.
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.