Posted on 04/18/2016 6:47:42 PM PDT by george76
New car loans have become the new hot product and Wall Street, not car-loving Americans, is the real market.
The growth of student loan debt has received no shortage of attention from politicians and the media in recent years, making it one of the top economic anxieties in post-mortgage-meltdown America. Behind the front-page investigations and populist political platforms, the numbers are indisputably chilling: student loan balances have surged from less than $18,000 per person to $25,000 per person in the ten years since 2005. But another class of debt is also growing at troubling rates without attracting anywhere near the same level of attention: car loans.
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Together, loans for cars and education contributed 90 percent of the growth in consumer debt since the end of 2012. Outstanding auto loans have hit more than a trillion dollars, with an average balance of $12,000 per person (or nearly 8 percent of disposable income), while the dreaded student loans “epidemic” is not far ahead at $1.3 trillion outstanding.
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Auto Asset Backed Securities (ABS), securitized bundles of car loans not unlike the mortgage-backed securities at the heart of the 2008 credit crisis, are the hidden driver of the auto debt boom.
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In 2015 some 23.5 percent of all new car loans were subprime
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rising delinquencies and defaults are finally opening the media’s eyes to the risk of an auto credit bubble collapse
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it’s time to recognize that expanding auto credit is not a substitute for the missing piece of the puzzle: rising wages. Until American consumers start seeing a genuine improvement in their financial position, it’s critical that we not encourage yet another debt bubble simply because it provides the appearance of economic growth.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
I feel saddled with debt for my new Caddy. The government should forgive and takeover my debt and save me worry.
These crap cars made by the government for $40 K!!! are you nuts. I have no mercy on you at all . If you were that stupid— Eat it!!
The hedge funds like volatility. They know they’re running up a bubble, and they profit handsomely until they themselves prick the bubble, then profit handsomely as it deflates. The market is geared now to generate such profit opportunities. However, people who are plodding along, buying and holding, faithfully putting 10% with company match into their 401K’s are unable to benefit, which means their retirement funds have been basically flat since the late 90’s, with some scary crashes that wreck those unfortunate enough to be too close to retirement to ever recover.
I predict a bull market for the re-po guys.
Any way to invest in that?
Used car bargains here I come.
I figure my old 1998 Toyota 4WD truck has cost me about $3. a day as far as purchase price.
Unintended consequences of Cash for Clunkers?
You notice that the nicest things any piss-poor town has are its car dealerships. Stupid people get charged more or offered shark loans. Can’t cure stupidity, except slow it down during bankruptcy phase (temporarily).
Buy an interest in a tow company.
Yeah, if they elect Bernie, he will hand out free cars, but they will all be Trablants from Eastern Europe.
“Repo man gotta have a code!”
Cars seem to be way over valued in my opinion. My 15 year old beater would sell for more than i paid. And I bought it used. I’ve been looking for a used full size diesel pickup and even 20 year old used ones are $20,000.
It sounds like a good time to start a repo business.
“The life of a Repo Man is always intense.”
That is a big difference between auto loans and student loans; there is an asset that can be repossessed (and more and more often, you don’t even need to get the keys from the “owner”).
The thing is that there is a physical item with resale value with a car, but not with an education.
Many co-workers who don’t earn a lot of money are driving nice cars; leasing has replaced buying for many people as we transition to a nomadic, Third World economy. People don’t invest in homes, cars, or children due to uncertainty; when they die they will leave no traces or legacy.
My dad has a 99 (I think) Dodge 4WD Ram longbed I borrowed for a few months while I recovered from the flood that sunk my Tacoma.
A few guys where I work were interested in it but no deal according to Dad. He has been offered a blank check by a guy a few times.
I’d keep it too. It’s for the open highway and country. For the burbs it’s bit big.
It has one quirk he found out the hard way after he bought it used himself. A few weeks he was going somewhere and saw the tank was at 1/4. A couple minutes later, it stalled then the gauge dropped to E.
On a similar note, I was coming out of Lowes over the weekend and saw a gray early 80s 4WD Dodge longbed. The owner just happened to be there and I talked to him for a few.
It belonged to his uncle. I told him that his uncle bought well.
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