Hi Mark, I do not know, but I understand that credit card interest rate is also fixed, more or less, unless due to competition in the US, the rates actually varies over time, along with FED rate, but at huge spread.
On
<<debt burden as unusually high>>,
it is a matter of taste, as if I had to pay 8% of my disposable income to service my credit card and auto, I would think it high.
On the housing debt, I think it matters a bit on what happened to the equity that was pulled out of housing. Given the US habit of refinancing, and consolidating credit cards, much of debt is probably effectively floating rate debt.
I agree with you that consumer debt on its own does not make a depression from an inventory recession, it just makes matters more intractable.
Don't know, not sure, so not convinced one way or another, yet. Just feeling that the environment, in the aggregate, smells dangerous, like a bubble enhanced recession, and so not waiting around to act like the hibernating type.
Chugs, Jay |
