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Daily Missive

Credit Card Default Wave Hits U.S. Banks

Loading ...Lau Vegys

January 17, 2025 • 3 minute, 15 second read


credit card debt

Credit Card Default Wave Hits U.S. Banks

~~ Lau Vegys, Doug Casey’s Crisis Investing

As I’ve said many times, the U.S. government isn’t the only one drowning in a sea of debt—Americans are too. And nowhere is this more evident than with credit card debt.

Recent data from the latest consumer debt report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that credit card balances hit $1.17 trillion in the third quarter of 2024.

This is the highest balance on record since 1947. As you can see in the graph below, credit card debt surged during the pandemic and has continued climbing ever since—all under the watchful eyes of Biden and Powell.

Turn Your Images On

Card balances aren’t that important if we pay them off at the end of each month—and what we should really be watching are delinquencies.

While that might be the case (with a few caveats), I’ve got some bad news for you. New data is in… And as it turns out, defaults on U.S. credit card loans hit the highest level in 14 years last year. You can see this spike in the chart below.

Turn Your Images On

According to BankRegData, credit card lenders wrote off $46 billion in delinquent loan balances in the first nine months of 2024. Again, this is the highest amount since around the time the global financial crisis wreaked havoc on economies worldwide. It’s also a 50% increase from the year prior.

This puts the final nail in the coffin of the “strong economy” narrative that President Biden’s handlers and Fed Chair Jerome Powell have been pushing. It’s anything but strong…

After years of Fed’s money printing and inflation, the American consumer’s finances are in worse shape than they’ve been in decades. And now, that reality is catching up with them in a major way.

Too Many Canaries in the Coal Mine

Early signs show more and more people are falling behind on their debts. Capital One, the third-largest U.S. credit card lender, said its write-off rate hit 6.1% in November, up from 5.2% last year.

Other major banks like Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America are all reporting massive spikes in delinquencies.

This is bad news for the consumer, but it’s also a big problem for the banks.

Keep in mind, all of this comes at a time when banks are sitting on hundreds of billions in unrealized losses, facing commercial real estate problems, and watching their credit ratings get downgraded left and right (while their shares hover near multi-year lows).

These are all the reasons why the smart money has been fleeing U.S. banks. As I wrote before, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has been systematically pulling out of major banks since early 2020. They’ve completely divested their stakes in Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs, while drastically reducing their position in Bank of America. And Buffett isn’t alone—Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates and other major investors have been dumping bank stocks en masse.

The upshot is, the banking sector was already buckling under multiple pressures. I’m not saying card defaults will be the final straw, but they’re certainly piling weight onto a camel that’s already struggling to stand.

One last thing…

I’ve recently spoken with a senior banker who has been in the financial industry longer than the Great Financial Crisis. His take is that the surge in credit card defaults isn’t happening in isolation—it’s part of a broader pattern of distress. The American consumer is simply tapped out. That’s why banks are seeing increases in defaults across all types of consumer debt, from auto loans to mortgages to personal loans. This isn’t about financial schemes or out-of-control risk-taking like we saw in 2008—it’s about the brutal reality that American households are struggling to survive.

And that’s what, according to him, makes this situation potentially even more dangerous than the 2007-2008 crisis was. ~ Lau Vegys, Doug Casey’s Crisis Investing


What If the “Scaling Cliff” Pops the AI Bubble?

September 10, 2025 • John Rubino

In just the past five years, nearly a trillion dollars have been thrown at AI data centers, chip plants, and model training. And the spending curve continues to steepen, as pretty much every tech firm and most governments enter the AI arms race.

Early AIs improved in line with the amount of computing power and new data they were fed. This led to the assumption that AI investment had a predictable rate of return (which investors absolutely love).

But with the most recent iterations of name-brand AI, that relationship has broken down. They’re not improving in line with the money being spent on them, leading a growing number of analysts to voice doubt about whether the return on this investment can be predicted going forward. This is known as the “scaling cliff.”

What If the “Scaling Cliff” Pops the AI Bubble?
No, We Can’t Time A Crisis

September 10, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

the BLS claims the healthcare and social assistance sector added +58,000 jobs per month over the past three months.

Meanwhile, ADP shows the same sector losing an average of -33,300 jobs per month. That’s a 91,300 job gap — after years when the two data services have tracked closely.

Worse, the Labor Department just revised down -911,000 jobs from the past 12 months — the largest revision in U.S. history, bigger even than 2009.

Private hiring was overstated by -880,000 jobs.

Trade, transport, leisure, hospitality — all quietly cut back. Excluding healthcare, the U.S. economy has actually lost 142,200 jobs over the past four months.

The revisions are so large they now rival the global financial crisis.

If June’s downward revision of -27,000 is counted, that’s -285,000 over two months, the worst outside of 2020.

No, We Can’t Time A Crisis
Real Estate Rolls Over

September 10, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

The housing market has been effectively frozen for three years.

That’s because, following record-low interest rates, homeowners refinanced with mortgages under 3%. Today, standing over 6%, the same home would have more than double the amount of interest each month.

Unsurprisingly, then, home prices have started to weaken as rates have remained high.

Real Estate Rolls Over
The Trump Boomerang Effect

September 9, 2025 • Lau Vegys

Every 50% tariff WILL make dollar alternatives more attractive.

Every threat WILL push BRICS members closer together.

Every sanctions regime WILL prove why they need payment systems that don’t run through New York.

You can take that to the bank.

The irony is that Trump’s sarcastic quips about “losing” India and Russia to China are starting to look less like jokes and more like forecasts. Treat countries like enemies long enough, and eventually they’ll start acting like it.

The Trump Boomerang Effect