Credit card delinquency is at the highest rate on record
A record 3.5% of US credit card balances were more than 30 days past due at the end of last year, according to data released yesterday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, whose data goes back to 2012.
Additionally, a series high of nearly 11% of account holders made just the minimum payment, as consumers struggle with inflation and the higher costs of living it brings. That’s not going to get any easier, since they also have to deal with record credit card interest rates — 21.6% on average from commercial banks — as well.
If you’ve already made plans for a Mother’s Day gift in advance of this Sunday, congratulations. But if alarm bells are suddenly ringing, consider this a gentle reminder that, like a sizable share of the US population this time of year often does, you can still scrape together some last-minute flowers for the woman who carried you for nine months.
Data from Google Trends reveals that searches for “same day flower delivery” spike in the US in May every year, when Mother’s Day takes place. As we noted last February, the same query also gains traction around Valentine’s Day.
Sherwood News
This year, however, it appears that searches for last-minute flowers have remained elevated in the last two months after the usual peak in February — with the search interest this April actually exceeding that seen around Cupid’s Day.
Honestly, we’re not sure why searches are spiking a little early. One explanation might be that Passover and Easter have overlapped at the start of April, and Americans wanted to celebrate with some flowers. Maybe it’s a host of Claude bots that are now running errands for AI-obsessed execs — or perhaps Americans are just impulse-buying some seasonal spring blooms after an unusually warm March, without a particular occasion.
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