American shoppers headed to the malls in an unusually warm January and did a lot of borrowing. The Federal Reserve reports that consumer credit (which does not include mortages and loans secured by real estate) rose to $2.162 trillion.
About half of this is “non-revolving” credit, such as car and boat loans, while the other half is mostly credit card debt.
It is sobering to think that Americans owe nearly a trillion dollars on high interest credit card loans.
