In the 2001 U.S. Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), 27% of households report simultaneously revolving significant credit card debt and holding sizeable amounts of liquid assets. These consumers report paying, on average, a 14% interest rate on their debt, while earning only 1 or 2% on their...

The corona virus pandemic has dramatically changed the economic outlook for the United States and many other countries. In June this year, the Federal Reserve published its unemployment predictions. From a July 2020 level of 10.2%, it expects the year-end ratio to drop to 9.3%; by the end of...

In January 2007, U.K. Government debt to GDP stood at 32.5%. By December 2019 it had grown to 89.5% and the latest data from September 2020 show a government debt level of just over £2 trillion, while its debt to GDP level did increase to 103.5%. The Quantitative Easing program by the Bank of...

In the financial accounts as collected by the U.S. Federal Reserve, one Balance Sheet item stands out: “The Household Balance Sheet over the period 2000-2020”. In Q4 2005, the market value of households’ real estate assets was $14.416 trillion. By Q4 2011 the market value had dropped to...

It is a well-established fact that many retirees do not utilize their accumulated housing equity to help smooth and increase consumption in retirement as is predicted by the Life-Cycle Hypothesis. In this paper, I explore how older Americans may retain their housing equity to help pay off...

In a recent paper: “U.S. households’ balance sheet and the link to economic policies” (MPRA Paper 104369), it was illustrated that the Great Recession of 2008 and beyond caused a loss in home equity of $6.1 trillion between Q4 2005 and Q4 2011. It took households until Q2 2016 before the...

The Eurozone countries share a common currency: the Euro operated and managed by the European Central Bank (ECB). The implications are that savings and wealth levels are also denominated in the same currency. Does this mean that wealth factors like home equity and pension savings can be...

The high growth rate of mortgage debt in various emerging and developed economies has captured headlines following the financial crisis. In this paper, we investigate how mortgage debt impacts household consumption behavior and various components of household consumption. Utilizing a...

This paper explores economic measures that are surprisingly hard to assemble: US household income quintiles’ annual spending relative to annual income. The total sector’s income-minus-spending surplus is heavily dominated by the top 20%. The bottom 80% runs persistent spending deficits,...