Energy defaults have been heavy on my mind as their Bankruptcies are expected to increase greatly in the second half of 2016. I didn't even touch on farms and other exploding debt. Clearly I'm not alone in this concern. It's not housing this time; it's much worse. If rates rise, what will happen? Emphasis in bold mine. Read on.
This could not have come at a more perfect time, with the Fed once again flip-flopping about raising rates. After appearing to wipe rate hikes off the table earlier this year, the Fed put them back on the table, perhaps as soon as June, according to the Fed minutes. A coterie of Fed heads was paraded in front of the media today and yesterday to make sure everyone got that point, pending further flip-flopping.
Drowned out by this hullabaloo, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve released its delinquency and charge-off data for all commercial banks in the first quarter – very sobering data.
So here a few nuggets.
Consumer loans and credit card loans h