Americans Are Racking Up 'Phantom Debt' That Wall Street Can't Track

return2ozma@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 98 points –
bloomberg.com

Consumers have embraced 'Buy Now, Pay Later' products that allow them to pay for purchases in installments, but it's not clear how many of these loans are out there.

Paywall removed: https://archive.is/9SYHz

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Phantom debt is debt that has not been reported to credit agencies. You know who hates not having that data on you? Credit agencies.

Business cards are useful for this. I have enough revolving credit limits now that it doesn't matter, but at one point I preferred to churn business cards, since a month's worth of expenses could ding my credit.

Maybe the government should actually try protecting people who are obviously too stupid to avoid these predatory practices. Maybe we should invest in an educated country. Maybe this is all working out just fine for businesses tied to politicians and therefore nothing more to worry about.

Housing market collapse?

Corporate ownership means the housing market will never collapse

For sure, but there were individuals buying homes too. Also, no savings, no more Airbnb and maybe can’t afford rent. Corporations will lose money, but they can sit on properties indefinitely.

The eventual ending of a scenario can either be government stepping in to take back properties, or one of two darker outcomes, the people take back property by force, or the corporations defend property by force. Imo all outcomes are grim

Surprise twist, Yellowstone suddenly blows up before any of these scenarios play out. The few remaining bacteria take back the properties. With no more scentient life present, "grimness" ceases to be a concept and there is no reflection on the present situation, the past, or potential futures. The outcome simply is.

Ha! You think the American public has the backbone to take anything by force? Not fucking likely. Corps will utilize law enforcement who are already militarized. Large part of the bell curve of the population can't even think for themselves let alone coordinate to do something productive. They haven't got what it takes to stand up for themselves. They think they do but they don't. This goes for both sides of the 2 party system.

It will if we all die and don't need houses

It will be a some sort market collapse. Wish I knew which industries to bet against.

Wells Fargo estimates that there's about 46 billion dollars in phantom debt, and that's just from "Buy Now, Pay Later.” And that's just in the US alone.

You can take out microloans for groceries which is nuts but the US is dumb as fuck so ofc they’ll do it.