One statistic has carried the case that the American consumer is breaking. Between the third quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2026, the share of credit card balances 90 or more days past due climbed from 7.6% to 12.8%, prompting concern that Americans were falling behind on their debts at rates not seen since the Great Recession. On August 11 the Federal Reserve Bank of New York published the reconciliation of that number, and the answer sits with how lenders report o
