Today’s Big Story

Credit Card Debt Reaches New High

Americans have now rang up $1.14 trillion on plastic

Americans love to charge it. Credit card debt is at an all-time high of $1.14 trillion, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The Q2 2024 Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit shows that credit card debt increased $27 billion during the second quarter. Compared to a year ago, credit card balances are up 5.8%.

And it’s not just balances that have risen. Credit card APRs are also much higher than just a few years ago, with average rates at 22.76% as of late this summer. So, not surprisingly, credit card delinquency rates have also gone up, with 9.1% of credit card balances transitioning to delinquency over the past year. According to Newsweek, credit card debt has the highest rates of serious delinquency (referred to as 90 days or more), compared to other types of loans like auto or mortgage debt.

While collectively, we owe over a trillion bucks, the average credit card balance is now around $6,329, a new report by TransUnion found. That’s about 5% higher than a year ago. Borrowers with revolving debt “are maxing out their credit cards,” said Michele Raneri, vice president and head of U.S. research and consulting at TransUnion, “that’s usually a pretty good indicator that people are stretched.”

Credit card balances briefly fell in 2020 and early 2021 due to pandemic-related factors, a banking industry analyst told CNBC, which included government-supplied stimulus checks and fewer opportunities for spending. “But since early 2021, credit card balances have rocketed upward by 48%, fueled by a post-pandemic boom in services spending as well as high inflation and high interest rates,” he said.

Consumers have showed a remarkable willingness to splurge on travel and entertainment, a recent report by Bankrate also shows, to recapture the experiences they lost during the pandemic years. But about a third (34%) of adults who lived in a household experiencing a job loss used a credit card to handle recent price increases. Sometimes a credit card is a lifeline and not just a way to have some fun.

Judge Blocks Biden’s Pathway to Citizenship

Federal judge puts the immigration program on hold after lawsuit from 16 states

A federal judge in Texas on Monday paused a Biden administration policy that would give spouses of U.S. citizens legal status without having to first leave the country, dealing at least a temporary setback to one of the biggest presidential actions to ease a path to citizenship in years. U.S. District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker issued the stay for a 14-day period in response to a request from attorneys general from 16 states, led by Texas.

According to NBC News, the program—which the White House named Keeping Families Together—would provide a form of legal relief known as “parole in place” to undocumented spouses of American citizens who could prove they have lived in the U.S. continuously for at least 10 years and met a host of other requirements. Axios estimates that roughly 500,000 people could have benefitted from the program.

The states that filed the lawsuit were assisted by America First Legal, the group founded and led by Stephen Miller, senior adviser to former President Donald Trump and architect of many of his administration’s immigration policies. Miller called Monday’s ruling a “huge victory” in a news release. However, government officials have said there’s no valid claim that states will be harmed and called allegations that the program will incentivize unauthorized immigration “baseless”.

Gen Z Is Calling in Sick

Americans are taking a lot more sick days and young people are leading the charge

The kids are calling in sick to work. Not actual kids, who (hopefully) are not working, but Gen Zers. They're racking up sick days and taking more mental-health days. In the spring of their careers, they're even going on sabbatical. Good for them … Americans have, for far too long, been known for not utilizing their paid time off and coming to work when they’re legitmately sick (posing a risk to coworkers).

It’s part of a larger, more positive trend. Dayforce, a human-resources platform, said sick leave was up by 55% in 2023 compared with 2019 among companies that use its services in the US. Gusto, another HR platform, has similar findings: Using data from over 300,000 small and midsize businesses that use its platform, it found that 30% of workers in professional-services industries—meaning white-collar workers—took sick leave last year, a 42% jump from 2019. This year, it says, that figure has continued to climb.

But, Business Insider says, it’s young people who are really driving the shift—the 25-to-34 crowd was taking more sick time than older workers. “There’s just a generational shift towards balancing work life, taking care of your whole self and those sorts of things. I think that we’ve heard over and over again that Gen Z and younger millennials really prioritize those things,” said Liz Wilke, a principal economist at Gusto. “People are just, I think, being a little more protective of their health and enforcing some work-life boundaries, especially around their health.”

Danny Jansen Makes MLB History

In a first, the catcher plays for both teams in same game

Boston Red Sox catcher Danny Jansen made MLB history Monday afternoon when he became the first person to play for both teams—during the same game (and the same inning, even). Say what, now?

You see, Jansen was in the lineup for the Toronto Blue Jays when they played the Red Sox in June, but the game was suspended in the second inning because of rain. It was ultimately rescheduled for yesterday, but in the interim, Jansen was traded to Boston. The result was that he was behind the plate when the game resumed after a delay of 65 days (18 hours and 35 minutes).

“I don’t know if it's going to happen again,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told ESPN. “It has to be kind of like the perfect storm for that to happen—starting with the storm—and I'm glad that everybody enjoyed it.” According to the Associated Press, Jansen wore two jerseys during the game, and he plans to keep one and send the other to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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