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How Has Household Debt Changed since 1995?
The relative debt burden of U.S. households has fluctuated sharply since the 1990s. What might have caused this? In a recent Economic Synopses essay, St. Louis Fed Economist Yu-Ting Chiang and Research Associate Mick Dueholm examined how changes in the supply and demand for loans may have affected the household liability-to-income ratio since 1995. Using data from the triennial Survey of Consumer Finances, the authors tracked this ratio from 1995 to 2019, breaking down the overall ratio into four debt categories: car loans, credit card debt, mortgages and other debt. They found that the shares of these debt ... (full story)