debt

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A Record Amount Is on Americans' Credit Cards

National tab tops $1T, New York Fed finds

(Newser) - Americans owe more money than ever on their credit cards: $1.14 trillion. That's after consumers added $27 billion to their tab in the second quarter, a 5.8% jump from the year before, a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York says. Credit card delinquency...

160K Student Borrowers Just Got Good News

Biden administration is moving to cancel a new round of student debt

(Newser) - The Biden administration is canceling student loans for another 160,000 borrowers through a combination of existing programs. The Education Department announced the latest round of cancellation on Wednesday, reports the AP , saying it will erase $7.7 billion in federal student loans. With the latest action, the administration said...

'I Wonder If They Are All Bad Debtors Like Me'

In China, those in default go on a national blacklist and are barred from high-speed trains

(Newser) - In the US, people who run into insurmountable debt can declare bankruptcy and attempt to regroup. In China, not so much. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reports that people who fall behind on debt—all of them listed "on a publicly available government delinquency blacklist"—face a...

317K People See Their Student Loans Erased

Former students of the for-profit Art Institutes see loans canceled, payments refunded

(Newser) - The Biden administration on Wednesday said it will cancel $6 billion in student loans for people who attended the Art Institutes, a system of for-profit colleges that closed the last of its campuses in 2023 amid accusations of fraud. Saying the chain lured students with "pervasive" lies, the Education...

Their Medical Debt Was Erased. It Didn't Do Much Good

Study finds the recipients' lives didn't meaningfully improve on a number of fronts

(Newser) - It's a somewhat counterintuitive finding: Wiping out medical debt with a face value of $169 million for 83,401 people didn't improve their mental health or credit scores on average. So finds a study published Monday as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper. The researchers tell...

Debt-Ridden Giuliani Getting Help From Outside Sources
Here's How Much
Rudy Giuliani Owes
Feb 23, 2024 1:00 PM CST

Here's How Much Rudy Giuliani Owes

It's a lot, as revealed in bankruptcy proceedings, and 2 groups are covering cost of his legal defense

(Newser) - This week brought a minor victory for Rudy Giuliani, but also those hungry for details about his paralyzing debt . The New York judge overseeing Giuliani's bankruptcy case allowed the former New York City mayor to appeal the $146 million penalty awarded to two former Georgia election workers Giuliani was...

New York City to Cancel $2B in Debt for 500K People

City will team up with RIP Medical Debt to do so

(Newser) - New York City intends to wipe out more than $2 billion in medical debt for up to 500,000 residents, tackling a top cause of personal bankruptcy, Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday. The city is working with RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit that buys medical debt in bulk from hospitals...

On National Debt Front, a 'Hard to Grasp' Number

US has exceeded $34T, a record: 'America just cannot stop borrowing'

(Newser) - In September, the United States broke its national debt record, reaching $33 trillion. Now, just three months later, a new record has been set. CNN Business notes that, per year-end figures released by the Treasury Department last month, our government's debt shot up to $34.001 trillion on Dec....

'Buy Now, Pay Later': Welcome to the Era of 'Phantom Debt'

Warnings are increasingly being issued about companies like Affirm, Afterpay

(Newser) - "Buy now, pay later" is becoming an increasingly popular way for Americans to shop—the stock for one company offering payment plans on purchases, Affirm, quintupled in 2023, reports CNBC —and warnings are increasingly being issued about what that could mean for consumers. The New York Times cites...

Debt Deal: True Market Relief, or a 'Short-Lived Sugar High'?

As agreement on raising debt ceiling heads to Congress, varying thoughts on what comes next

(Newser) - An agreement has been reached , at least in principle, by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on raising the nation's debt limit, and now the final OK is in Congress' hands. Both progressive Democrats and ultra-conservatives are already pushing back on the deal , and if Biden and McCarthy...

The Picture Being Painted by Key Debt-Ceiling Players

Words 'confident' and 'optimistic' are getting used, but there's a ways to go

(Newser) - As the clock ticks down to June 1, the president and congressional leaders continue to sound off about the likelihood of striking a deal on raising the debt ceiling. President Biden held a second Oval Office meeting with House and Senate leaders Kevin McCarthy, Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, and Mitch...

Speaker McCarthy: Debt Deal Needed Soon to Avoid Default

But he didn't see 'new movement' in talks with Biden

(Newser) - President Biden and congressional leaders confronted each other on the debt limit impasse Tuesday, ending their meeting with no breakthrough but agreeing to meet again this week to try to avert the looming risk of an unprecedented government default. Speaking at the White House, Biden described the talks as "...

Trump Hid a Big Loan While President: Forbes

$19.8M debt with Daewoo, firm with ties to N. Korea, should've been listed in financial disclosures

(Newser) - Donald Trump had a foreign creditor he didn't disclose while running for president, with a debt that was quietly paid off a few months after he took office. Forbes has the documents from his Trump Organization, which were obtained by New York Attorney General Letitia James and/ show the...

Household Debt Just Had Its Biggest Increase Since 2007

Researchers say credit card, mortgage balances are rising sharply

(Newser) - During the early days of the pandemic, consumers weren't breaking out their credit cards. Those days are behind us. Household debt is now surging, with credit card balances seeing their biggest rise in more than 20 years in the third quarter of this year, researchers say. The Federal Reserve...

Toledo Plans to Use $1.6M to Wipe Out $240M in Medical Debt

Ohio city is working with nonprofit that buys old debts from hospitals

(Newser) - "Washington might not have a plan for medical debt relief, but Toledo, Ohio, does," says Dr. Michele Grim, a city council member who led an effort to forgive up to $240 million in medical debt—for a lot less than $240 million. The council has passed a measure...

Portrait of Americans' Finances: We Owe More Than Ever

Household debt topped $16T for first time

(Newser) - Americans owe more money than they ever have before. The New York Federal Reserve on Tuesday shared that household debt increased to $16.15 trillion in the second quarter. It's the first time it's surpassed the $16 trillion mark, and represents a 2%—or $312 billion—rise over...

For First Time in Century, Russia Defaults on Debt

Moscow blames sanctions, not a lack of money

(Newser) - Russia disagrees, but the rest of the world is of the opinion that Moscow has defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time since the Bolshevik Revolution more than a century ago. A 30-day grace period on interest payments originally due May 27 expired Sunday, per the AP . That...

His Father's Death Exposed Family's Fall From Middle Class

The exact opposite of intergenerational wealth is forcing families out of the middle class

(Newser) - "Backward mobility" is one term economists use to describe the descent of many middle-class families into "the bottom 50% of Americans who collectively have a negative net worth." That financial trend is the background for Eli Saslow's piece for the Washington Post on the "death...

Russia Hasn't Done This in a Century

Country inches toward a possible default on foreign debt for first time since 1918

(Newser) - "The last time Russia defaulted on foreign debt, Lenin was in power," reads a headline from Quartz . It's a relevant historical fact as Russia, under heavy sanctions triggered by its invasion of Ukraine, inches toward a default on its foreign debt again, more than a century after...

Changes Are Needed to Avoid Debt Following Homelessness
Back From Homelessness,
Woman Faced $54K Debt
opinion
Dec 29, 2021 4:58 PM CST

Back From Homelessness, Woman Faced $54K Debt

Lori Teresa Yearwood writes that the most vulnerable are punished by fines and fees

(Newser) - When Lori Teresa Yearwood emerged from homelessness, she wasn't immediately stepping back into a life of independence. She was bound by debt, a pile of fines and fees that she'd incurred over the past two years totaling more than $54,000. In clearing that debt, Yearwood writes in...

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