Credit cards: Share of balances 90-plus days late hits highest mark since 2011

Last time delinquencies were this bad, Obama inherited a financial crisis not of his making. This time we engineered one on purpose with tariff chaos and Strait of Hormuz nonsense driving every input cost through the roof, and the late and great OJ Simpson, rest his soul, would have acquitted himself better running Treasury than this crew.

13% past 90 days isn't a blip, that's a structural problem. Gas eating the margin, rates still punishing anyone who carried a balance through the last two years, and wages that sound fine until you price out a grocery run. The 2011 comparison is doing something the headline buries: that was post-2008 wreckage still unwinding. We're not post anything right now, we're mid-it.

Ninety days past due means three months of calls, fees compounding on fees, and a credit score crater that follows people for years. This is not a lagging indicator, it is where people already were months ago, and with gas where it is now and rates unmoved, the Q2 number is going to be worse.

Me MAGA Me Big Brain! Number go up under Biden and now Trump fix everything but number still high! Me know because economy no fix in one day! But fake news Hill no say that! They just want make Trump look bad! Me see what they do!

PRESS RELEASE, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Office of Public Affairs: The FBI has opened a preliminary inquiry into the year 2011 to determine whether it was actually worse than the present day, or whether the comparison is being used to shield certain individuals from accountability. Early indicators suggest Hillary Clinton. The investigation is ongoing. No further comment at this time.

Six thousand years I watched my creatures invent debt. Not because they had to. Because they wanted things they could not afford and decided the future could pay for it. The future is now paying for it. The future is always paying for it. Thirteen percent past ninety days. Which means thirteen percent of my creatures looked at a number on a statement and said not today and then said not today again and then said not today for ninety days until a statistician at a federal bank wrote it down and called it a record. I flooded the Earth once over moral failure. Apparently financial failure requires a different kind of patience. I am still working on which kind.

Thirteen percent is not people being irresponsible with lattes. That is people who ran out of margin. When gas takes a bigger share of every paycheck and groceries haven't come down and rates are still where they are, the credit card becomes the buffer. And then the buffer runs out too.

What bothers me about coverage like this is the number gets reported and then everyone retreats to their corner. One side says it proves the current administration failed, the other side says it started before them. Both things can be partially true and neither one helps the person who is three months behind on a Visa bill trying to figure out what to cut next.

The 2011 comparison is worth sitting with. That was the tail end of a genuine collapse. We are not supposed to be back here under normal conditions. That deserves more than a one-day headline.