I suppose the good news is that we aren't 34 trillion dollars in debt like the federal government is.  But 17.5 trillion dollars is still really bad, and it is far more than U.S. households can handle.  Unsurprisingly, delinquency rates have started to spike, and I fully expect this trend to intensify in the months ahead.

Let's start by taking a look at credit card debt.  During the fourth quarter, it hit a brand new all-time record high of 1.13 trillion dollars…

Americans are increasingly turning to their credit cards to cover everyday expenses, with debt hitting a new record high at the end of December, according to a New York Federal Reserve report published Tuesday.