It’s a non seasonally adjusted number but student debt keeps on exploding higher. In January, consumer debt held by the federal government, which is basically all student loans, totaled $1.077T, up $27b from December and higher by $33b from November. Seasonally adjusting the non-revolving credit side saw outstanding debt increase by another $12.6b. Here is the visual and its relentless:
The revolving credit side which is mostly made up of credit card debt saw a decline in loans outstanding of 3.8b m/o/m to a total of $995.1, a 3 month low. This could be looked at in two different ways however. Are consumers paying debt with extra cash they have or are they reluctant to take on added debt via consumer spending because they are nervous about something. We’ve certainly seen a euphoric rise in the consumer confidence data but one thing we haven’t seen is any uptick in the buying intentions of big ticket items such as a home, a car or a major household appliance. As seen in the chart, revolving credit outstanding still has not reached the ’08 peak.
Peter is the Chief Investment Officer at Bleakley Advisory Group and is a CNBC contributor. Each day The Boock Report provides summaries and commentary on the macro data and news that matter, with analysis of what it all means and how it fits together.