Credit Card and Auto Loan Spending Drove March
The results are “in” for April’s spending reports on the American public spending habits, and borrowing habits, and it’s actually what appears to be a bright spot in the otherwise dark doppler forecast for the economy as of late. Apparently, consumer spending and borrowing, mostly in the form of credit card spending and auto loans, went up modestly in March. Yes, it takes almost a full month to calculate these types of numbers, and believe me, even then I feel many times they are unreliable - after all, how can they account for ALL of it? That’s just my inner skepticism though, so ignore me for the moment.
This, paired with news that the GDP, the beacon by which recessions are gauged, has increased modestly as well, and that is counter to what we’ve been hearing about an already-here or pending recession, which is marked by a series of slowing GDP all the way around, which basically means that the whole economy has slowed for so many months in succession. Of course, this can never be accounted for until it’s actually over and all the numbers are reported, so recessions can rarely be absolutely earmarked until they are actually over, since no one can really say for certain one has happened until it’s after the fact.
Borrowing on various types of credit cards, including gas credit cards and low apr credit cards with fixed rates, went up almost a full three percent more annually than they do normally, so that’s good news, depending on how you look at credit card borrowing I guess (wink wink). Does this mean that consumers are still over extending themselves?
Well, that’s a matter of judgment so it really depends on who you ask, but for me, I’ve seen the struggling of my friends and coworkers, and the signs are there that people are having to tap credit sources they normally wouldn’t which many times comes in the form of a credit card, or revolving debt as we’re all aware. Those government issues rebate checks?
Hmm, well most people think that these are going to be spent on paying bills and putting the money away for savings, but that remains to be seen in about another month when we see if the first distribution of the stimulus checks helped with our GDP at all. Let’s be optimistic though, it does seem like there is some positive activity going on her, which is a good sign.
