There was this brief moment a couple years ago when it looked like Americans just might

finally get their credit card spending in check. We were spending less during COVID, and those

federal stimulus checks meant a lot of us were actually making more money.

But then when those ended and inflation reared its ugly head and came back around,

it really caught people off guard and they're digging themselves deeper and deeper into debt

in order to make ends meet.

Over the past year and half, as Americans were putting more on their credit cards than ever before,

interest rates rose on those cards by nearly a third.

I could put all of my entire paycheck towards paying it off for the entire year.

And it would still take me about two years to pay it all off plus interest.

Coming up on Today Explained, we're revisiting an episode from earlier this year about how Americans racked up over a trillion dollars in credit card debt and what it'll take to get out of it.

How do custom orders work on Cracken? Imagine I'm a music producer, dialing in my newest track.

Need more bass? Crank it.

Vocals not popping. Double it up.

Want a bigger sound?

Hit that reverb.

Hard.

That's custom orders on Cracken.

Complete control over your crypto trades.

Go to Cracken.com and see what crypto can be.

Don't invest unless you're prepared to lose all the money you invest.

This is a high risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong. This episode is brought to you by B-streamwise. As we get

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