The Cracks in America’s Economy Are Getting Harder to Ignore

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folks, we got some cracks in the economy, more than one. Again, I’ve been doing this for a long, long time, not my first rodeo out there. And I’m often asked, you know, how do you you go about predicting the things that you, you know, are able to do and see things? Yeah, I don’t just follow nonsensical government numbers or what the the doofuses on business news programs are saying.

Let’s just say my my information gathering is is better. It’s more grassroots. One of the things that I pick up on quite frankly is the questions that I am asked. I do a lot of local radio, local TV, I’ve drifted away from doing the national stuff.

for myriad of reasons, but one of the reasons is doing local radio and local TV and places around the country. The questions you get will basically tell you what’s on the minds of the people within these various different communities. I’m also, again, we’re at a distinct advantage at Markowski Investments over everybody else, because we have clients in 50 states, small business owners, large businesses, you know.

little bit of everything out there. So we’re able to collect a lot of data based upon this. But again, the questions that I get when I go on programs, and more and more, I’m getting questions in regards to what to do if I’m laid off or how do you prepare for a layoff or anything in regards to financial stress is gotten.

more popular as far as the questions that I am being asked ever more prevalent. I get the text in the morning from a producer, you know, I’m going on this program and that program, we’d like to talk about this today. And I’m like, not a good sign. And again, not my first rodeo. I’ve been doing guest appearances since the 1990s. And you can kind of see and feel out what the American people are feeling. And again, you can also look at

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the numbers as well. This number blew my mind. Blew my mind. The average person right now defaulting.

on student loans is nearly 40 years old. We’ve talked about student loan defaults. Millions of borrowers are defaulting on their student loans and they are nearly 40 years old on average.

That’s nearly two and a half years older than the profile of a student loan defaulter before the pandemic. Bower’s 50 and older are now at a higher risk of default than younger borrowers. And I can I see stories like this and I’m sorry, I feel horrible for these people. I really do. I’ve got tremendous sympathy.

for people like this. For whatever reason it may be, they made a I guess it was a poor investment in regards to their education. One of the things I warn people about time and time again, conventional wisdom is poison. Conventional wisdom is poison. get this degree, get that degree. Yeah, they have an interest in getting you out there and get as many degrees.

as possible that they’re selling you, you know, they’re selling you a dream. They’re selling you a business. Okay, that’s their business getting you to get multiple degrees.

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I can’t tell you. And again, you know, it’s funny, too. I have a lot of a lot of really interesting clients that have developed very, very successful businesses, very successful businesses, and they get to a certain point in time and they may some may have gone to college may have gotten a bachelor’s, some may have gotten associates, something go at all. But you’re talking successful business owners, multi millionaires and

As they get older, they’re like, you know, maybe, you know, somebody got about maybe I should just go and just get my MBA and I laugh. I’m like, are you of your freaking mind? I said you could teach the classes. You could teach the classes what you think that these professors are going to know more than you do about business. Are you nuts? But it’s almost like an ego thing to them. And it’s true more often than not.

I know, Chris, I’m just gonna do it anyway. I’m sorry. And they start doing it. And they’re like, that was you’re right. You’re right, Chris. You’re right. Shouldn’t have done that. Again. My job is to try to keep people from doing stupid stuff. That’s pretty much what I do for a living. Sometimes I’m successful. Sometimes I’m not. But yeah, many people that gone deep in to debt. For what?

especially now, the layoffs we’re seeing. Maybe people went to school and got degrees and going into human resources. How long ago was it? You gotta go, Twitch, you gotta go get a job, you gotta go learn the code, learn the code. Now, that’s over.

Anyway, since since the pause on student loan repayments ended in 2023, the federal government has been pushing people to start repaying their loans. In the fourth quarter of last year, those who failed to restart payments began defaulting, meaning they hit 270 days past due on their payments. 3.5 million people defaulted between October and March.

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Again, here’s some of the reports that looks at who’s defaulting. Sheriff’s student loan balances passed to increase to just over 10 % nearing pre-pandemic levels. The average borrower in default is more likely to live in the South, though borrowers are defaulting across the country. Most of the newly defaulted borrowers weren’t passed due on their student loans before the pandemic. Borrowers who have defaulted on their student loans are struggling to make other debt payments too.

40 % of those with auto loans are past due. 56 % with at least one credit card are past due. 20 % with a mortgage are past due. Loan delinquencies have been broadly trending higher. Some of these borrowers are likely parents who borrowed on behalf of their children.

My generation here, Gen X, 50 to 61 have the highest average student loan. my God. Balance of any age group. Many of them either reach college age as the modern general student loan system was forming or borrowed later, likely on behalf of their children. I don’t even want to go on with this because again, it just it gets me bent out of shape. Quite frankly.

Don’t do it. Don’t. Don’t don’t. Don’t. You is that that song mama don’t let their babies grow up to be cowboys. Parents don’t let your kids grow up with student loans. Don’t do it. No way. Know how. Don’t do it. I have talked about this at length on the program. You go back to the school they got admitted to. It’s too expensive. You let them know. I can’t afford.

to go. This is it. This is what I can afford to pay. You want my kid or not. And I’m sorry if you’re going to disappoint your kid. Your kid is going to thank you later on. Okay. If you’re not putting them into debt and you’re going to then do this to yourself, you don’t have to.

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It’s been a scam for a long, it’s been a scam forever. It was a scam before Obama decided to take the whole program over. alone, alone you cannot, you can’t, not legal to default on. You can’t go into bankruptcy for it.

Again, as a lender in that situation, hey, you can’t lose money. How can you lose money? You can’t default. You can’t default. They’re going to come after you. Again, if you could default on your student loans, the interest rates would be a hell of a lot higher. Yes, they would. Nobody would take those loans out unless you had a real big hole in your head. And colleges and universities would actually have to price their product

based upon what people could afford to pay. It is an awful scam. And it’s so many things in life where the financial sector in this country enslaves people. This is just another one. And our government’s involved. Again, I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m surprised somebody has to start up a national movement to say, hey, everybody out there, too low, just stop paying. What are they gonna do?

Well, you think they’re gonna have the capacity to start docking people’s pay you think that they’re you think anyone’s gonna push for that you think any politician or left or right can even push for that?

Are you kidding me? No, they’re not. Sucks, sucks. Government had no business getting involved in any of this. And while we’re at it, we talk about cracks in the economy, speaking about student loans. Credit card stress.

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are at levels right now that we saw during the great financial crisis.

We’re being told unemployment rate still under 5%. Still under 5%. We are almost at levels. about again, credit card 90 plus days delinquent 13%. Now, you’re going to go back to the Great Recession. had credit card stress levels at around 14 % at the highs, but unemployment at that point in time was 10.

We’re at 4.3 now.

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Again, major cracks in the economy. Watchdog on wallstreet.com.