The Self-Raising Debt Ceiling... for US Households
The US’ national debt ceiling debate continues to heat up with Republicans and Democrats locked in confrontation about how to avoid debt default… while the Tea Party cries “hell no” to raising the limit.
Though a recent cartoon takes a different tack, and considers how at the household level the US is facing a similar debt debacle… this despite families even choosing to shirk home mortgage payments in order to keep personal budgets above water.
According to Bloomberg:
“Millions of Americans have more money to spend since they fell delinquent on their mortgages amid the worst housing collapse since the Great Depression.
“They are staying in their homes for free about a year and a half on average, buying time to restructure their finances and providing an unexpected support for consumer spending, which makes up about 70 percent of the economy.
“So-called ‘squatter’s rent,’ or the increase to income from withheld mortgage payments, will be an estimated $50 billion this year, according to Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York.”
See the cartoon below, which came to our attention via a Reformed Broker post on the US debt ceiling pain at the household level… not to even mention state and other municipal debt.
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