On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Steve Rattner, who served as counselor to the Treasury Secretary in the Obama administration, and also serves as the show’s Economic Analyst, stated that default rates on credit cards and auto loans have “started to move up a good bit” and this, along with excess savings among Americans starting to run out are concerning signs for the economy.
Rattner stated that while the inflation rate has dropped, “we still have a ways to go. But I would say very few economists expected this to come down as far and as fast as it has. And that means, obviously, good news for consumers, in terms of what their real spending power is. So, you’ve had wage growth throughout this period, and it actually accelerated due to the low unemployment rate and the demand for workers. And it’s above 4%. But, after inflation, Americans had been negative for a good while. But the good news is, now they’re positive.”
He added, “I have talked a lot about why Americans are so grumpy given that you have 5% growth. And I think inflation plays, by far, the biggest role in that. Because Americans still see higher prices at the grocery…
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