American Household Debt Soars to Record $17.5 Trillion

Total U.S. household debt increased by $212 billion to an all-time high of $17.5 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to new data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit. Household debt rose by 15 percent over the last year, and it has climbed by 46 percent since 2021. All types of loans drove the 5 percent quarterly rise in household debt in the final three months of 2023. Credit card debt, coinciding with the holiday shopping season, climbed by $50 billion, to a new record of $1.129 trillion. This is up nearly 15 percent from the fourth quarter of 2022....