“Americans living beyond their means”
And this is news - how?
There have ALWAYS been a certain minority of Americans who have lived their lives “beyond their means”. That is why inflation has become part of our economic foundations.
“A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow” is an economic dictum built into the system, and presupposes the extension of credit, with interest being paid on that credit line. No matter what the economic climate at any given time, there is ALWAYS credit being extended by someone, to another, to enable the transfer of ownership. There are various legal interpretations of what this obligation to pay may involve, but these are mostly encoded in the law, or if not, are usually enforced at the discretion of the person doing the lending (think Mafioso tactics for collections and “protection”).
Eventually the “living beyond means” results in the past catching up, either by the growth into the means by increasing net income, or by busting out through bankruptcy. Either one means that some discipline in spending/earning was enforced, whether by the self or by an external agency. Today’s expensive dollars are paid off with tomorrow’s cheap dollars (plus accrued interest).
Permanent inflation has only been with us since around the WWII time period. The FOMC was created in 1936.
“There have ALWAYS been a certain minority of Americans who have lived their lives “beyond their means”. That is why inflation has become part of our economic foundations.”
The difference now, though is that the taxpayers are expected to bail out the mortgage companies.