20 Facts That Prove American Families Are Being Completly Crushed By Rising Prices
Inflation drives US household debt to record $17 trillion
US household debt has hit $17 trillion, the most in history, according to a report issued Monday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The figure reveals the enormous financial stress on working class families. Rapidly rising prices for gasoline, food, rent and other basic necessities have devastated household budgets, forcing working people to borrow on their credit cards or take equity out of refinancing their homes to pay their bills.
The report puts the lie to the claims of the Biden administration, echoed by the corporate media, that the US economy is sound, inflation is coming down, and the recent bank failures in California are only a blip on the screen, not an indication of deeper problems. The reality is that tens of millions are living on the edge, one unexpected expense away from disaster.
The figures laid out in the New York Fed report are stark. Total household debt rose by $148 billion in the first three months of 2023, an increase of 0.9 percent compared to the previous quarter. Nearly all major categories of consumer debt rose in the first quarter to record levels. Mortgages topped $12 trillion, student loan balances were $1.6 trillion, and auto loans were $1.56 trillion.
Credit card debt remained the same, at a record $986 billion, but this was also a sign of increased financial pressure. It was the first time in 20 years that this debt has not fallen in the first quarter. Credit card debt usually hits a peak with the Christmas shopping season, then falls in the first quarter as people spend less and use income tax refunds to pay down credit card balances. This seasonal effect did not take place.
Overall consumer debt has shot up by nearly $3 trillion since the end of 2019. This represents a marked reversal from the first two years of the pandemic, when most households were forced to cut their spending as they stayed home because of the danger of coronavirus.
Consumer debt actually fell during those years, and household savings jumped by $2.1 trillion as many used government stimulus checks to pay off debt. According to a report last week by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, this “excess” saving has been nearly exhausted. Only $500 billion remains, which will be gone by the end of this year, removing that cushion against the twin evils of inflation and recession.
Another financial expedient during 2020-2021 was mortgage refinancing. Some 14 million mortgages were refinanced, taking advantage of historically low mortgage rates as the Federal Reserve pumped trillions to prop up the financial system to benefit the super-rich and drove down the cost of borrowing.
Cash-out refinancing allowed mortgage holders to extract $430 billion in home equity, but that prop to consumer spending is also gone, since the rapid hikes in interest rates in 2022 have popped that financial bubble. Both new mortgages and mortgage refinancing hit 20-year lows in the first quarter.
The business press, in reporting the debt figures, avoided examining the meaning of the rising household debt for working people either individually or as a class. The $17 trillion in total debt, averaged over 125 million households, would come to roughly $140,000 per household. With median household income around $70,000, the debt-to-income ratio would come to 200 percent.
One credit industry report found that the proportion of people carrying a debt balance from month to month rose from 39 percent in 2022 to 46 percent in the first quarter. These tens of millions of card holders were paying interest rates at a record average rate of 20.33 percent, according to Bankrate.com. The previous record was 19 percent in July 1991.
While the overall delinquency rate on payments remained stable, the proportion of credit card debt in serious delinquency, with no payments for 90 days or more, shot up from 4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 4.6 percent in the first quarter of 2023. For younger people, aged 18-29, the serious delinquency rate was 8.3 percent, nearly twice as high
Credit cards are increasingly used by younger people to cover their daily expenses, which they cannot afford on their low pay rates. One industry survey found that 42 percent of those aged 27-42 (“Millennials”) had increased their use of credit significantly over the past year, as well as 27 percent of those aged 43-58 (“Gen X”).
The two older generations, aged 59-73 and 74 and above, carried the highest average credit card balances, over $5,000, and therefore stand to pay on the average more than $1,000 a year in interest just on those balances, as well as interest charges on any new purchases.
A second survey, reported by Market Watch, found that 60 percent of US adults live paycheck to paycheck, while 73 percent of Millennials do so. An identical 73 percent of Millennials are carrying credit card balances.
The credit card reporting agency TransUnion found in its own first quarter report that because of price increases outstripping wage increases and rising interest rates, consumers “are increasingly turning to credit to manage their household budgets, leading to record or near-record high balances in credit cards and unsecured loans.”
Behind these numbers is the reality of mounting class oppression. Tens of millions of working people, particularly from the super-exploited younger generations, are on a downward treadmill of low wages, ever higher prices, constant borrowing, crushing debts, and no prospect of improvement, let alone escape, within the framework of capitalism.
This is a major driving force in the growing militancy of the working class, which finds its expression, not only in strikes, but in rebellions by the workers against the straitjacket of the corporatist trade unions, and the increased willingness to defy the attacks of the capitalist state, from police violence to court injunctions to anti-strike legislation.
Report: Homeless Americans Kicked Out of NY Hotel to Make Room for Migrants
Homeless Americans are reportedly being kicked out of hotels in New York as New York City buses border crossers and illegal aliens to neighboring counties to put them up, for free, in hotels that are enjoying lucrative contracts.
According to the New York Post, two homeless couples were recently told they would have to find another place to stay by executives at the Ramada Inn in Yonkers which sits in Westchester County, New York — where New York City Eric Adams (D) has started busing migrants.
“I don’t got no place to go,” one of the homeless Americans told the Post. “I don’t have any family here. I don’t know nobody. and I’m disabled. Come on, it’s not fair.”
One of the couples has an 18-month-old baby and must now find another place to stay after spending $150 per night at the hotel for the last two weeks.
“The migrants’ are not having to pay out of their own pocket, and I’m having to pay out of my own pocket — and then I have to leave whenever [hotel executives] say,” the mother told the Post.
Another homeless American booted from the hotel said he was born in the United States and, thus, should get priority ahead of those new arrivals who just arrived in the U.S. days ago via the southern border.
he evictions are occurring as Adams has started busing border crossers and illegal aliens to Westchester County and Orange County, both of which sit above Manhattan. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) suggested this week that New Yorkers may soon see migrants living in tents across the city.
“You’re gonna start seeing people living in tents — not just on the border, but on the streets of New York,” Hochul said, stating that the state is “bursting at the seams” due to illegal immigration.
Homeless Americans are not the only ones to be kicked out of hotels in New York to make room for border crossers and illegal aliens. Late last week, reports circulated that 20 homeless veterans were kicked out of the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, New York, so that migrants could get their rooms.
Likewise, Americans with wedding plans have said their guests have had their hotel rooms canceled at the hotel at the same time that the property started taking in border crossers and illegal aliens.
Related: Migrants Refuse to Leave NYC Hotel, Demand Taxpayers Give Them “Permanent Homes”
@datainput via StoryfulJohn Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
Chicago’s Brandon Johnson Welcomes Illegal Aliens as Black Residents Rail Against Mass Immigration
Newly sworn-in Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) welcomed border crossers and illegal aliens to the sanctuary city in his inaugural address on Monday just as black Chicagoans protest illegal immigration flooding their neighborhoods.
Since August 2022, thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens have inundated Chicago — many arriving with illnesses like COVID-19 and without any ties to the city — spurring former Mayor Lori Lightfoot to declare a state of emergency last week.
Already, Chicago officials have opened police stations and abandoned schools to border crossers and illegal aliens, paid for by local taxpayers. Despite Lightfoot saying the city is at a “breaking point,” Johnson said there is more than enough room for border crossers and illegal aliens.
“We don’t want our story to be told that we were unable to house the unhoused or provide safe harbor for those who are seeking refuge here because enough room for everyone in the city of Chicago, whether you are seeking asylum or you are looking for a fully funded neighborhood,” Johnson said in his address.
The remarks sharply break from black Chicagoans who wield significant political power. Late last week, many attended a town hall meeting at the former South Shore High School where city officials want to house potentially hundreds of migrants.
“Looking at the numbers coming out of city hall and the state of Illinois, upwards of $150 million for six months,” one resident explained:
We believe that $150 million would have been, in some way, eligible to come into our community to help our crime problem, help our economic problem, and help with our housing issues. And as we’re all aware, black people are the largest number of homeless in Chicago so if you’re going to help anyone, help the current black homeless first. [Emphasis added]
At the town hall, one black Chicagoan held a sign that read “BUILD THE WALL 2024,” a sign of support for closing the United States-Mexico border to illegal immigration rather than President Joe Biden’s current approach of releasing tens of thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens into American communities every month.
Chicago residents are so fed up with illegal immigration that a group has filed a lawsuit against the city to stop them from housing border crossers and illegal aliens in the South Shore neighborhood.
“It is a slap in the face that we as citizens of the United States of America do not have the resources and support but you’re going to bring people who are not citizens here in our community, in our buildings that we pay taxes for that you took away from us,” one Chicago resident told local media.
“… at the end of the day, if Chicago can’t take care of its own, why should they take care of others? If the resources are given to others, why can’t the resources be given to us?” another Chicago resident asked.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
“We are going to continue to make sure that, if migrants come into our state, we will send them to the sanctuary cites that have given them pre-consent to come and live off of their taxpayers, and not ours.”
NY Hotels Boot Homeless Veterans to Shelter Released Migrants
Upstate New York hotels began kicking homeless veterans from their properties to make room for migrants being bused to the region from New York City. The homeless veterans, many Vietnam-era veterans, were receiving temporary shelter in the hotels through the efforts of a nonprofit agency.
The New York Post reports that nearly two dozen homeless veterans “have been booted from the upstate hotels to make room for migrants.” One of the hotels told a 24-year-old Afghanistan war veteran their temporary housing was being pulled out from under them and they would have to move somewhere else.
Sharon Toney-Finch, CEO of the Yerik Israel Toney Foundation, told the New York Post, “Our veterans have been placed in another hotel due to what’s going on with the immigrants.”
Toney-Finch said they moved the veterans from the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, New York, to other nearby motels and hotels. The properties were located about 20 minutes from where they were displaced.
Orange County, New York, is now the target of a migrant busing campaign by New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The mayor is moving the migrants out of his sanctuary city to Upstate New York to relieve migrant overcrowding in his city.
Migrants board a city bus to a shelter intake center after traveling on a bus from Del Rio, Texas, to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City on Saturday, May 13, 2023. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The veterans had been placed in the first hotel under a four-week temporary housing program while the nonprofit agency attempted to find another solution for their housing needs. The veterans were about two weeks into the program “when they got the boot,” Toony-Finch stated.
“A lot of them are Vietnam veterans. We do help them on a constant basis to get them benefits and help them find a place in society,” she explained, adding, “Now we have to work from ground zero. We just lost that trust [with the vets].”
Republican New York State Assemblyman Brian Maher told the Post, “Shining a light on this is important because we need to make sure these hotels know how important it is to respect the service of our veterans before they kick [them] out of hotels to make room.”
New York Democrat Congressman Pat Ryan, whose 18th congressional district covers the northern suburbs and exurbs of New York City, took to social media to condemn the “incompetence” of city officials in displacing the homeless veterans.
New York Republican Congressman Marc Molinaro also took to social media to denounce the “absolutely inexcusable” treatment of the homeless veterans, which he described as “the result of incompetence and lack of compassion.”
Tooney-Finch said the hotel made the move to expel the veterans based on money. “They get paid more [for the migrants],” she stated. “That’s so unfair, because at the end of the day, we are a small nonprofit, and we do pay $88 a day for a veteran to be there.”
It is not clear what the city is paying for the housing of the bused migrants from New York City.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.
New Yorkers Say Their Hotel Rooms Are Being Canceled and Given to Migrants
As illegal immigration overwhelms the United States as a result of President Joe Biden ending the Title 42 border control, New Yorkers say hotel rooms they booked months in advance are now being given to newly arrived border crossers and illegal aliens.
A couple, originally from New York but now residing in Florida, told the New York Post the 30 hotel rooms they had booked at the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, New York, were abruptly canceled to accommodate border crossers and illegal aliens.
Another couple, from Queens, New York City, said they had booked 37 hotel rooms at the Crossroads Hotel for their wedding but that the rooms, similarly, were canceled to make room for border crossers and illegal aliens.
The cancelations come as Mayor Eric Adams (D) has started busing newly arrived border crossers and illegal aliens out of New York City, a sanctuary city, to surrounding suburban counties, including Orange County, New York where the Crossroads Hotel sits.
https://twitter.com/CBSNewYork/status/1657167521802338308
Specifically, the Crossroads Hotel is enjoying a lucrative contract to house at least two dozen border crossers and illegal aliens as of late last week. Likewise, Adams vowed to bus migrants to Rockland County, New York but officials quickly secured a temporary restraining order, blocking the mayor from putting new arrivals up in a county hotel.
Orange County officials have filed a similar lawsuit against Adams, stating that the migrant relocation effort exceeds the mayor’s legal authority.
Eric Adams, mayor of New York, during a New York State Financial Control Board meeting in New York, US, on Tuesday, September 6, 2022. (Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Adams’ insistence to begin busing migrants out of New York City comes after he has long called Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) migrant busing policy — where border crossers and illegal aliens are sent out of the state to various sanctuary cities — “anti-American.”
American war veterans have also said that they are being booted from hotel rooms at the Crossroads Hotel to make way for border crossers and illegal aliens.
Adams has turned New York City’s massive illegal immigration problem into a quasi-slush fund for the powerful real estate and hotel industry which helps fund his political initiatives.
WATCH: Illegal Immigrants BAIL When DPS Conducts Traffic Stop, Find 38 POUNDS of Meth:
Texas Department of Public SafetyMost recently, for example, Adams is looking to transform the iconic now-closed Roosevelt Hotel into a migrant shelter — a boon for the hotel’s owners while costing New Yorkers some $75 million annually.
In total, New Yorkers are expected to spend $4 billion by next year. Much of that cost is being spent on border crossers and illegal aliens whom Adams has placed in multiple luxury hotels at no cost to them, transferring millions from taxpayers to wealthy landlords.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
