Free Republic

American credit card defaults have risen to the highest levels since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis as consumers grapple with years of high inflation. Credit card lenders wrote off $46 billion in delinquent loan balances in the first three quarters of 2024, a 50 percent increase from the same period last year. These forms of write-offs are are viewed as a highly monitored measure of loan distress. This is the highest level since 2010, according to industry data gathered by BankRegData. Mark Zandi, the head of Moody’s Analytics, said, “High-income households are fine, but the bottom third of...

Nineteen Democrats and one independent are calling on U.S. financial regulators to do more to address financial risks posed by the changing climate. The lawmakers, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.), wrote to leaders of the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on Thursday to call for more action. “The United States’ lack of progress and innovation in establishing robust measures to address the financial and economic risks from climate change places us behind our international peers and is counterproductive to American interests,” they wrote,...

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian in a letter to members of Congress on Wednesday discussed steps the company has taken to help its employees, two days after more than 100 House members in a separate letter called on him to stay neutral in union talks at the company. Bastian highlighted a $1.4 billion profit-sharing arrangement for front-line workers and an emergency savings program, in which participating employees “can earn $1,000 from Delta to fund a rainy day account.” “At Delta, our No. 1 job is taking care of our people — our success flows from this simple concept. Sharing...

The purported value of Ivanka Trump’s Park Avenue penthouse came under scrutiny this week during testimony at trial in the New York attorney general’s $250 million civil fraud case against the former president. Donald Bender, a former accountant for Donald Trump at the accounting firm Mazars USA, testified in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday that he saw errors between the value listed for the posh pad on financial documents and its potential sale price. Bender explained from the witness stand that, while he wasn’t in charge of auditing the company financials, he “from time to time” would tell Trump Organization...