At 9:15 PM 10/16/96, Tavis Barr wrote:
>Do we have the usual up-to-the-minute Doug Henwood stats on credit card
>debt? If so, what's happened?
See below. Provided as a public service by LBO; subscriptions always
welcome to defer the costs of keeping current.
>P.S. My other question, for both Doug and Mike, is about concentration,
>since that's how the thread started. Please note, I'm not a Monopoly
>Capital adherent, this is really just a question about logic: Is there
>any contradiction, IYHOs, between lower profitability and increased
>concentration? Or increased differentiation?
My O is rarely H. Mergers can be a response to profitability pressures, no?
The health care merger wave in the U.S. now is a response to
cost-containment pressures, for example. Ditto weapons industry mergers, a
response to shrinking procurement budgets (relative to GDP, not in absolute
terms).
Doug
----
Here are the latest household credit numbers - outstanding levels expressed
as a percentage of disposable personal income, from the Fed's flow of funds
stats. 1996 figures are averages of the first two quarters; all others are
averages of the four quarters. Not shown in detail are miscellaneous forms
of credit like bank loans, security credit, and trade credit; they are,
however, included in the total. Because interest rates are lower now than
in the late 1980s, the debt service burden is lower than then, even as the
debt stock has continued to rise (and personal bankruptcies are at record
levels).
HOUSEHOLD CREDIT, PERCENT OF DISPOSABLE PERSONAL INCOME
home consumer
total mortgages credit
1952 35.5% 21.5% 11.4%
1953 38.4% 23.0% 12.9%
1954 41.3% 25.4% 13.1%
1955 44.9% 27.7% 14.1%
1956 47.7% 29.7% 14.9%
1957 49.6% 31.1% 15.0%
1958 50.8% 32.6% 14.7%
1959 52.8% 33.9% 15.2%
1960 56.1% 35.7% 16.2%
1961 58.0% 37.1% 16.1%
1962 59.7% 38.2% 16.4%
1963 62.6% 39.9% 17.4%
1964 63.8% 40.3% 18.1%
1965 64.8% 40.6% 18.8%
1966 64.7% 40.3% 18.8%
1967 63.5% 39.5% 18.3%
1968 62.8% 38.8% 18.2%
1969 62.9% 38.4% 18.6%
1970 60.9% 37.0% 17.9%
1971 60.1% 36.3% 17.9%
1972 61.6% 37.1% 18.5%
1973 61.8% 36.8% 19.0%
1974 62.0% 37.1% 18.8%
1975 60.4% 36.5% 17.3%
1976 61.0% 37.3% 17.1%
1977 63.7% 39.4% 17.8%
1978 65.9% 41.2% 18.5%
1979 68.1% 43.3% 18.9%
1980 67.9% 44.0% 17.7%
1981 66.1% 43.1% 16.4%
1982 65.4% 42.3% 16.1%
1983 65.1% 41.4% 16.2%
1984 65.8% 41.7% 17.2%
1985 71.2% 44.8% 18.8%
1986 75.4% 47.6% 19.8%
1987 79.6% 52.0% 19.8%
1988 80.9% 53.7% 19.6%
1989 82.7% 55.1% 19.7%
1990 84.8% 57.9% 19.1%
1991 86.0% 59.6% 18.2%
1992 85.1% 59.7% 17.0%
1993 86.5% 60.5% 17.1%
1994 89.1% 61.4% 18.3%
1995 91.3% 61.7% 19.9%
1996 93.1% 62.6% 20.6%
Doug
--
Doug Henwood
Left Business Observer
250 W 85 St
New York NY 10024-3217
USA
+1-212-874-4020 voice
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