Thursday, July 21, 2011

Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, July 21, 2011


Party on, Garth!
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1 comment:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-21/consumers-in-u-s-relying-on-credit-as-inflation-erodes-incomes.html

Consumers in the U.S. are increasingly using credit cards to pay for basic necessities as income gains fail to keep pace with rising food and fuel prices.

* THE KEY QUESTION IS... ARE WE TALKING ADDING TO BALANCES - THUS ADDING TO INTEREST BEARING DEBT - OR ARE WE TALKING PEOPLE UTILIZING THEIR CARDS TO GET POINT AND PAYING OFF THE BALANCE EVERY MONTH?

The value of an average transaction on credit cards outpaced the gain for debit cards, showing consumers are increasingly relying on borrowing to pay for gasoline and other necessities, Tavares said.

* THE PRIMARY QUESTION STILL REMAINS.

The figures are in synch with data from the Federal Reserve. Revolving credit, primarily credit card balances, increased by $3.37 billion to $793.1 billion in May from an almost seven-year low of $789.8 billion in April, figures from the central bank showed. The gain was equivalent to a 5.1% increase at an annual rate.

* AS ALWAYS, I'M HONEST. I'M NOT QUITE SURE IF THEY'RE TALKING UNPAID BALANCES RISING OR SIMPLY MORE MONEY SPENT VIA CREDIT CARD THAT IS PAID OFF AT THE END OF THE MONTH WITH NO INTEREST ACCRUING. (*SHRUG*) THIS REALLY IS A POORLY WRITTEN STORY.

July 21, 2011 at 8:57 AM

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