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It’s officially shopping season but CNN analyst Harry Enten says high prices are destroying America’s credit cards in the Trump economy.
There are 3 million more shoppers between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to analysis, but 90-day credit card delinquencies are exploding.
“I mean, look at this. It's the highest since the Great Recession,” said Enten. “We're talking about 12.4 percent of [credit card] balances are at least 90-plus days late. That is way up from where we were three years ago at this point, when it was 7.6 percent of balances that were 90 plus days late. So, clearly, people are taking on more debt and the debts are climbing higher on their credit cards.”
Enten added that the credit card debt was another aspect of wealthy Americans buying more while the rest of the U.S. tightens their belts.
“You look at those making at least $100,000, the amount of money being spent [by them] up 5 percent. Then you go down the next bracket, at $50,000 to 100,000, it's down 6 percent. And then look at that: Under $50,000 income — way down there, down at 16 percent,” said Enten.
“So that 16 percent drop in the amount of money being spent for household incomes less than $50,000 … compared to up 5 percent [rise] among those making more than $100,000 — I think that is the perfect illustration of this k-shaped economy, whereby folks who are doing pretty gosh darn good are putting out their money, but those who aren't are really going to hold back this year versus last year.”