Turns out we share more with the English than our love for fried potatoes and catchy pop tunes. Brits are dealing with a lot of consumer debt.

There have been a few stories written on the subject of late.

The Wall Street Journal story said a network of financial counselors across the country “as of April received 1.77 million inquiries from people in financial distress in the previous 12 months. That number was up 20% from the prior year and more than double from a decade earlier. That translates into about 6,600 new calls every working day.”

A story published in the Chicago Tribune said British consumers owe $2.7 trillion on credit cards, mortgages and other consumer loans. The New York Times on Sunday said no country in the developed world has as high a ratio of debt to personal income.

To put it into context, that’s about how much Americans have in consumer debt not including mortgages. Our mortgage debt according to the Federal Reserve, is more than $13 trillion.

Again, a common theme that seems to run throughout my posts on debt and consumer behavior leaps to mind here as well. What caused us to embrace credit and shun thrift? And what in the world is going to have to happen for our societies to swing the pendulum back?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 11:12 am and is filed under credit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.