BUSINESS

The case against subsidising housing debt

Business, Jeffrey Frankel, Published on 31/05/2017

» At the end of the first quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, consumer debt in the United States for the first time exceeded its previous peak (in dollars), reached in the third quarter of 2008, just as the global financial crisis erupted. Although car loans and student debt have been rising especially rapidly, housing debt remains more than two-thirds of the $12.7-trillion total.