Record High US Consumer Debt
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 14 June 2017
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Household debt is at record levels as US consumers spend, spend and spend some more. And with America's interest rates set to rise again, could there be trouble ahead?
Former Federal Reserve governor Randy Kroszner tells presenter Manuela Saragosa that watching the debt problem get fixed will be like "watching paint dry" - but that it is a deliberately slow process, to avoid shocks to consumers.
We hear from retirees in the US who are struggling with debt - and one expert who says that the current workforce may not be able to rely on their pensions when they retire.
Also in the programme, Ryan Holmes, the chief executive and founder of social media managing software, Hootsuite, gives his take on whether a company can survive these days without a presence on social media.
(Image: Credit cards in a wallet. Credit: Getty Images Staff)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:08.0 | I'm Manuel Zaragoza. |
| 0:09.6 | Coming up, Americans are spending, spending and spending some more. |
| 0:14.5 | I know I sound like some sort of scolding grandfather when I say this, but they need to save their money. |
| 0:22.3 | They need to say, I'm not going to buy that new $700 iPhone. But American consumer debt is back at levels not seen since the |
| 0:28.9 | credit bubble of 2008, just as interest rates are set to rise. Also, how do you get your |
| 0:35.3 | corporate message right on social media? |
| 0:41.3 | We hear from the CEO who ended up in a very public spat on Twitter. |
| 0:44.6 | I had an exchange with a journalist a little while ago who called out the valuation of our company falsely, |
| 0:48.2 | and I felt attacked. |
| 0:49.4 | I apologize for it. |
| 0:50.7 | The comments I made were not appropriate. |
| 0:53.7 | That's all in Business daily from the BBC. |
| 0:58.1 | Later today, America's central bank, the Federal Reserve, is widely expected to raise its key |
| 1:04.1 | interest rate, in effect making it more expensive to borrow. And that, as American household debt, |
| 1:14.2 | has reached a new peak, $12.7 trillion in the first three months of this year. So with rates set to rise, could there be trouble ahead? |
| 1:20.0 | In just a moment, we'll ask a former governor of the U.S. Federal Reserve. But first, Jane O'Brien |
| 1:25.5 | sent this report from Washington. |
| 1:30.8 | It's working out pretty well. |
| 1:34.8 | Jean Noble is 80 years old and receiving debt counseling. |
| 1:36.5 | Are you saving it this time? I am saving. |
| 1:37.9 | He retired five years ago on a pension of $40,000, about average for a long-serving |
... |
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