{"id":483055,"date":"2017-05-04T20:35:07","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T20:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=483055"},"modified":"2017-05-04T20:35:07","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T20:35:07","slug":"the-day-the-malls-went-silent-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=483055","title":{"rendered":"The Day the Malls Went Silent"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Black<\/a><\/div>\n

By Dave Gonigam<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

This post The Day the Malls Went Silent appeared first on Daily Reckoning.<\/p>\n

The Federal Reserve is in denial.<\/p>\n

Yesterday the Fed wrapped up two days of meetings and issued its customary every-six-weeks policy statement. To no one’s surprise, the Fed left interest rates alone this time. Also to no one’s surprise, the Fed continued to signal the likelihood of an increase in six more weeks.<\/p>\n

The only mystery was how the Fed would justify it in the face of the latest economic numbers \u2014 which, by and large, are weak. The Fed opted to declare the weak numbers are temporary.<\/p>\n

The Fed seemed especially keen to squelch the notion that the mighty American consumer is withering under the load of accumulating debt \u2014 as suggested in numbers we shared here both Friday and Monday. \u201cHousehold spending rose only modestly,\u201d said the Fed statement, \u201cbut the fundamentals underpinning the continued growth of consumption remained solid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mighty American consumer is \u201cimpaled on Peak Debt,\u201d our own David Stockman begs to differ.<\/p>\n

\u201cDebt-encumbered American consumers are terminal. They are dropping, not shopping, because this entire so-called recovery has been wasted. That is, consumers can’t spend energetically, because there has been no significant deleveraging since the 2008 crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, American households are back in hock to the same extent they were just before the Panic of ’08\u2026<\/p>\n

Household debt, 1987-present<\/p>\n

Let’s take each of those categories one by one\u2026<\/p>\n

For the first time since 2008, credit card debt recently surpassed the $1 trillion mark, according to the Fed’s own numbers. Among cardholders carrying a balance, the average balance is $9,600
\nThe credit-reporting agency Experian recently said average mortgage debt nationwide is now $196,014 \u2014 up more than 6% since 2008
\nThe number of Americans defaulting on their student loans leaped by 17% last year, according to the Consumer Federation of America. Default means no payment for the last nine months. At least 4.2 million borrowers are in that fix.<\/p>\n

Oh, let’s not forget auto loans \u2014 an area where the major banks are seriously pulling in their horns.<\/p>\n

Auto loan originations at Wells Fargo are down 29% from a year earlier\u2026 and WF is one of the biggest auto lenders. Similar numbers are showing up at other lenders, too.<\/p>\n

Fewer loans are translating to fewer auto sales. Detroit’s Big Three reported their April sales numbers earlier this week, and they were dismal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe declines are mostly occurring in lending to riskier borrowers, in particular those with low credit scores, where lending had ramped up for years,\u201d says this morning’s Wall Street Journal. The subprime auto bubble, which we spotted here in The 5 3\u00bd years ago, is finally bursting.<\/p>\n

Some lenders are even pulling back on higher-quality prime loans. \u201cThe auto business just isn’t as attractive right now,\u201d Fifth Third Bancorp CEO Greg Carmichael tells the Journal. What’s more, banks are reporting higher losses on defaulted auto loans.<\/p>\n

The tapping out of the American consumer couldn’t be happening at a worse time for U.S. retailers.<\/p>\n

Some more numbers, courtesy of David Stockman: \u201cReported sales \u2026read more<\/a> <\/p>\n

Source:: Daily Reckoning feed<\/a><\/p>\n

The post <\/a>The Day the Malls Went Silent<\/a> appeared first on Junior Mining Analyst<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dave Gonigam This post The Day the Malls Went Silent appeared first on Daily Reckoning. The Federal Reserve is in denial. Yesterday the Fed wrapped up two days of meetings and issued its customary every-six-weeks policy statement. To no one’s surprise, the Fed left interest rates alone this time. Also to no one’s surprise, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483055"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=483055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=483055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=483055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=483055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}