TAPPED OUT: Americans Are Falling Behind on Their Bills. Wall Street Is Alarmed.

Shares of consumer-lending companies slid this past week after executives raised warnings about lower-income borrowers who are struggling to make payments. Dour remarks from banking executives at the Barclays banking conference rattled investors, who were already on edge about the health of the U.S. economy.

Investors have been on high alert for any clues that a recession is in store after two years of higher interest rates. The Federal Reserve is expected to start lowering rates at its meeting this coming week, but some investors fear it might have waited too long.

Here is what bank executives are telling us about how people are faring.

On top of soaring prices for groceries and just about everything else, people have been dealing with higher interest rates on their credit cards. The average rate as of May was 21.51%, according to Fed data, up from around 15% in 2019.

That helps explain why some are finding it harder to keep up with payments, particularly those who don’t earn so much. Around 9.1% of credit-card balances turned delinquent over the past year, the highest rate in over a decade, according to an August report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The stories began over two years ago that inflation had run through our lockdown savings. Then came the stories a year or so ago that credit card debt and housing payments had hit new highs. So of course the next in the sequence was delinquencies.

Anyone taken by surprise can’t be trusted with anything more complex or breakable than Lincoln logs.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Then there’s the gaslighting.

THE FEDS CAN’T BE TRUSTED: DeSantis Takes Matters Into His Own Hands on Assassination Attempt.

“DON’T SAY THINGS WE DON’T LIKE AND MAYBE YOU WON’T GET SHOT AT” IS QUITE THE FLEX:

WATCH: MSNBC's Alex Witt argues *the Trump campaign* needs to turn down the rhetoric now that Donald Trump has been shot at for the second time in three months.

"Do you expect there to be calls from within the Trump campaign to [tone it down]?"

Elise Jordan replies she hopes… pic.twitter.com/NGjxqIsTPR

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 15, 2024

They truly are the propaganda arm of the State.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN):

"Barack Obama was aware of what the Clinton campaign was doing by vilifying Donald Trump as a Russian agent." @LeeSmithDC calls out former president Obama for his role in the first Russia hoax. pic.twitter.com/3lxqHfsj8t

— The First (@TheFirstonTV) September 15, 2024

THIS IS CNN? REALLY? CNN Destroys Kamala Harris Campaign For Spreading Disinformation on Social Media.

FIGHT THE POWER: Women in Iran going without hijabs as 2nd anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death approaches.

There’s no government official or study acknowledging the phenomenon, which began as Iran entered its hot summer months and power cuts in its overburdened electrical system became common. But across social media, videos of people filming neighborhood streets or just talking about a normal day in their life, women and girls can be seen walking past with their long hair out over their shoulders, particularly after sunset.

This defiance comes despite what United Nations investigators describe as “expanded repressive measures and policies” by Iran’s theocracy to punish them — though there’s been no recent catalyzing event like Amini’s death to galvanize demonstrators.

The country’s new reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian campaigned on a promise to halt the harassment of women by morality police. But the country’s ultimate authority remains the 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who in the past said “unveiling is both religiously forbidden and politically forbidden.”

“Reformist” is just for the Western press.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Party of Joy Inspires Another Attempt On Donald Trump’s Life.

The public has been force fed the fiction that the Kamala Harris version of the 2024 Democrats are all about joy. It is, of course, a shiny object distraction from the fact that the woman is a shallow dullard who isn’t fit to be in charge of snacks at a book club meeting, let alone president of this once-great Republic.

In reality, the Democrats are sinister, bitter people who have a well documented track record of wishing illness and death upon people who don’t agree with them politically.

The response by Democrats on social media to this latest assassination attempt was, predictably, awful. They’re awful people, after all.

And they’re responsible for it, especially Kamala Harris.

Read the whole thing.

RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE:

Of all the pictures, two of them are holding machine guns, and at least four are stills from their Hamas/Islamic Jihad video.

Standard run of the mill Palestinian teenagers. https://t.co/hvVALTzahA pic.twitter.com/8kMT7oiepc

— The Mossad: Satirical and Awesome (@TheMossadIL) September 15, 2024

Surprisingly, the original “Palestinian” propaganda tweet has been deleted.

THE EV BUBBLE CONTINUES TO DEFLATE:EV Dealers Are So Desperate to Offload Stock That They’re Offering Lease Deals For $20 a Month.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Landspace hops closer to a reusable rocket.

Chinese private space startup Landspace has completed a 10-kilometer (33,000-foot) vertical takeoff and vertical landing test on its Zhuque-3 (ZQ-3) reusable rocket testbed, including a mid-flight engine reignition at near supersonic conditions, Aviation Week & Space Technology reports. The 18.3-meter (60-foot) vehicle took off from the Jiuquan launch base in northwestern China, ascended to 10,002 meters, and then made a vertical descent and achieved an on-target propulsive landing 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) from the launch pad. Notably, the rocket’s methane-fueled variable-thrust engine intentionally shutdown in flight, then reignited for descent, as engines would operate on future full-scale booster flybacks. The test booster used grid fins and cold gas thrusters to control itself when its main engine was dormant, according to Landspace.

“All indicators met the expected design” … Landspace hailed the test as a major milestone in the company’s road to flying its next rocket, the Zhuque-3, as soon as next year. With nine methane-fueled main engines, the Zhuque-3 will initially be able to deliver 21 metric tons (46,300 pounds) of payload into low-Earth orbit with its booster flying in expendable mode. In 2026, Landspace aims to begin recovering Zhuque-3 first-stage boosters for reuse. Landspace is one of several Chinese companies working seriously on reusable rocket designs. Another Chinese firm, Deep Blue Aerospace, says it plans a 100-kilometer (62-mile) suborbital test of a reusable booster soon, ahead of the first flight of its medium-class Nebula-1 rocket next year.

SpaceX is trying to make Falcon 9 obsolete with Starship but the Biden-Harris administration keeps slowing them down. Meanwhile, there are several companies in China working to make Falcon 9 obsolete, presumably without hindrance from Beijing.

WAS ANYONE REALLY SURPRISED? Dan Bongino Predicted Another Assassination Attempt on Trump Would Happen.

DESANTIS GETS STUFF DONE:

BREAKING — Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm Blackwater, calls on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to immediately assume control of the investigation into the second Trump assassination attempt.

He adds, “The Feds have dropped the ball thoroughly on Butler PA. Time… pic.twitter.com/whRNdu1frv

— Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) September 15, 2024

IT’S TIME FOR VICTORIA TAFT’S West Coast, Messed Coast™ — The Left’s Great License Plate Shortage of 2024.

ASTROTURF TO GO: About Those Buses We Keep Seeing at Kamala’s Rallies, There’s MORE and It’s Even WORSE Than We Thought. “Now, to be fair we can neither confirm nor deny these claims but if this is at all true, this would mean Team Kamala is not only busing people in but paying the same people to attend her rallies over and over again.”

A VERY PUBLIC EDUCATION: Sick Writing Assignment Gets Teacher Fired In New York City. “”These questions are disturbing. They caused a lot of stress to students, especially to my child.”

SUSTAINABILITY: Interest payments on the national debt top $1 trillion as deficit swells.

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: He Asked the Cops to Test His ‘Bad’ Drugs.

FLASHBACK: New poll shows Pennsylvania voters overwhelmingly reject Biden LNG pause.

A [March 4, 2024] statewide Pennsylvania poll released Monday morning showed 58% of Pennsylvania voters surveyed oppose President Joe Biden’s liquefied natural gas export moratorium after learning the details of the impact it would have on jobs and communities in the state.

The survey showed 41% of voters are more likely to vote against Biden based on him suspending approvals for new facilities that export liquefied natural gas, with 22% of voters are more likely to support him.

In the Scranton media market, this number increases to a majority of voters, 55%, who said they are more likely to vote against Biden based on this announcement

The poll was conducted by Axis Research and surveyed 601 Pennsylvania voters, with a majority of them, 57%, being independent and Democratic voters.

The Biden administration announced on Jan. 26 that it was halting approval of new licenses to export LNG due to climate change.

Why does the Biden-Harris administration hate Pennsylvania workers?

EVERGREEN: Joe Manchin Is a Weasel Who Can’t Leave the Senate Soon Enough.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY (CHINA EDITION):

One of the most striking charts this year:

China’s startup ecosystem has almost completely collapsed in the last 5 years. pic.twitter.com/Ynsf01tWbd

— Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp) September 12, 2024

Xi Jinping wanted to restore CCP control over the economy. This is what control looks like.

DON’T GET COCKY: More Bad News for Kamala Out of Michigan. “A new Insider Poll out of Michigan reinforces Trump’s momentum.”

CHANGE: Florida is disappearing from the national political map.

For the first time in recent political memory, the 2024 presidential race has left Florida as a comparative afterthought. Democrats here have tried to maintain momentum and voter intensity, but nearly every measurable factor indicates that Florida is not realistically in play for them in this year’s presidential contest.

“Are you happy we are a solid Republican state? It used to be …presidential elections, we would be on a razor’s edge about the state of Florida,” Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, told a crowd of the party faithful at a gathering last weekend at the Hard Rock Casino in South Florida. “Because if Republicans could not win the state of Florida, then you did not have a path to win the Electoral College.”

Florida has long been solidly red at the state level as Republicans built a now more than 1 million person voter registration advantage, and they remain firmly in control of nearly every lever of political power. But in the past, when huge sums of money flowed in during presidential races, the state was considered winnable for Democrats.

That money has almost completely dried up.

Florida’s airwaves are no longer saturated by political ads — yet another reason for residents to be thankful for Gov. Ron DeSantis.

MATTHEW CONTINETTI: No, 2024 Is Not Over Yet.

You would think that after a decade of Trump, official Washington would recognize that it understands politics differently than voters outside D.C. As a Beltway elite, junior class, I belong to the consensus that says Harris did a better job than Trump. That’s the view from the bubble. Reporting on undecided voters tells another story. The Times, Reuters, and the BBC found that voters leaned toward Trump after watching the debate. Why? Because Harris remains a cipher. Her economic message was vague, more “concepts of a plan,” as Trump might say, than a substantive program to restore price stability and raise incomes.

These voters have a point. For my sins, I read the transcript of the debate after watching it live. Harris didn’t answer a single question the moderators asked her, no matter the subject. Are Americans better off than four years ago? Why did the Biden-Harris administration wait three and a half years to address the border crisis? Why exactly has Harris junked her socialist policies from four years ago? Does she support a single restriction on abortion? OK, Trump asked the last one. The ABC anchors didn’t follow up.

Harris has had a remarkable run since President Biden withdrew from the Democratic nomination in late July. But she still hasn’t lapped Trump. She hasn’t overtaken him to such an extent that she’s the clear favorite. One reason is her distance from voters, her refusal to speak freely and concretely on subjects of major concern. Another is her current occupation. The vice president of an unpopular White House can’t escape the burdens of inflation, immigration, and failure and indecision abroad. Unless she makes a clean break from her boss. Harris hasn’t.

Also, 2024 Trump outpolls 2020 and 2016 Trump. And Harris under-polls 2020 Biden and 2016 Clinton.

Just don’t go getting cocky.

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE WAS LAST SEEN EXITING THE REAR OF A 727 WITH A PARACHUTE AND A SATCHEL OF RANSOM MONEY: Haitian Voter Fraud Uncovered in Springfield, Ohio.

MARK JUDGE: ‘They Want Government to Be God.’

I got to talk to [Scott] Baio about the new movie he’s in, God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust, which opens this weekend. The film stars David A. R. White as David Hill, a pastor who enters a congressional race after the sudden death of the incumbent. The favorite to assume the position is state senator Peter Kane, who at first has no serious competition. Kane is a secularist who touts the Enlightenment at every media stop and has deep antipathy towards Christians. Pastor Hill’s campaign inspires people who want more morality, honesty, and decency in American public life.

Baio plays Wesley, a sleazy opposition researcher who works for Senator Kane. Wesley tries to destroy Hill’s chances by planting false or exaggerated stories about him in the media. One of the minor characters is Martin, played by Paul Kwo, who has come to the U.S. from Communist China. A former atheist and now a Christian, Martin warns Hill about the Cultural Revolution in China and how it has spread to America. The Cultural Revolution was a period in China during the 1960s when people were tortured and killed if they dissented from the Marxist teachings of Mao Zedong. Hollywood loves to make movies about Joe McCarthy, but they are far more reluctant to address China’s Cultural Revolution, perhaps because it bears striking similarities with the past few years in America.

“I think you see it a lot with the persecution Christians,” Baio told me.

Read the whole thing.

INDESCRIBABLY STUPID:

How will the USAF resupply munitions once “dispersed across the pacific”

She does know that we can’t airlift enough bombs and missiles in, right?

She does know that SHE is cutting our prepositioning fleet, right?

She does know we don’t have enough tankers to refuel, right? https://t.co/gRmOuf3rQA

— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) September 13, 2024

The Army and Marines want to follow the same “dispersal” strategy, putting stresses we can afford on a logistics chain that isn’t up to the job.

Essentially, we’d be repeating the strategic mistakes Imperial Japan made in 1941-42 — and with the benefit of hindsight.