Free Republic

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans have taken on significantly more debt to buy vehicles. This is especially true for Gen Z and Millennials, who the Federal Reserve believes may have borrowed beyond their means.In this infographic, Visual Capitalist's Marcu Lu visualizes data from the Fed’s most recent consumer debt update.Aggressive BorrowingThe first chart in this graphic shows the growth in outstanding car loans between Q2 2020 (start of the pandemic) to Q4 2022 (latest available).We can see that Americans under the age of 40 have grown their vehicle-related debt the most. It’s natural for Gen Z (ages 11-26) to have...

In August 2008, William Lesinski walked into a Car Credit City in Bridgeton and made a decision that would be far more expensive than he ever imagined. Wanting to buy his son a car as a high school graduation gift, Lesinski put $1,750 down and drove off the lot in a 2003 Ford Mustang. The loan for the car was $11,367, and it carried 29 percent annual interest over nearly four years. His son would make the payments, but the loan was in Lesinski’s name. After paying the balance down to a little more than $10,000, his son, who had...

This morning President Bush announced that government loans will be provided to auto companies to help prevent their collapse. The President also reminded the automakers—and their unions—that they got themselves into this mess and if they plan to survive, they must reform now. (Transcript) President Bush: The terms of the loans will require auto companies to demonstrate how they would become viable. They must pay back all their loans to the government, and show that their firms can earn a profit and achieve a positive net worth. This restructuring will require meaningful concessions from all involved in the auto industry...

Meltdown: The toxic effects of Derivatives By Monty Guild and Tony Danaher A few weeks ago many thought I was out of my mind. I had the temerity to state that I thought that we were going into a depression, not a recession, and that the economic decline would last for two to three years. Now, it looks like a few others are coming around to my view. The chairman of Goldman Sachs recently said we are facing a banking crisis worse than the Great Depression. The former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange said it is comparable to...

I traded off my 2000 Dodge Ram back in May of this year (6 months early). That truck was under a balloon payment (4 year) that was to run out this month. When traded, we paid the remaining payments plus the $400 "disposition fee" at that time. The truck was very well taken care of, WAY below allowed mileage, nearly new tires, all scheduled maintenence (done by dealer), and quite clean. When we turned it in, the dealer did their inspection (required by the finance company) that turned up very clean with soem slight superficial scratches that I didn't have...