Why Americans Are Falling Behind on Auto Loans At Their Highest Level Ever
Odd Lots22 Des 2025

Why Americans Are Falling Behind on Auto Loans At Their Highest Level Ever

By and large, American households are in a healthy economic position. Yes, unemployment has been rising, but it's still at fairly low levels. Consumer spending has held up well despite terrible sentiment. And many households are sitting on huge stock market gains and have a big home equity cushion. And yet, there are signs of trouble. Most notably, auto loan delinquencies have been surging to their highest level in history. It's the same with student loans, where delinquencies are far higher than normal. So what's going on? On this episode, we speak with Rikard Bandebo, the chief economist at VantageScore, which offers a consumer credit score that's different from the traditional FICO measures. He explains how surging prices, rising interests, and -- crucially -- rising insurance costs have created an auto squeeze. We also discuss what this means for broader consumer health and whether this auto delinquency phenomenon signals something broader about consumer stress.

Read more:
Rise of the ‘Zombie’ Loans
First Brands Asks Lenders for Fresh Cash of Up to $800 Million

Only Bloomberg - Business News, Stock Markets, Finance, Breaking & World News subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots

Join the conversation: discord.gg/oddlots

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episoder(1192)

Ziad Daoud Explains How War with Iran Will Reshape the Gulf

Ziad Daoud Explains How War with Iran Will Reshape the Gulf

Regardless of whether the war with Iran continues, it seems likely to have a lasting impact on the Gulf states. They may have to rebuild damaged pipelines and other infrastructure, or create new ones ...

13 Apr 45min

The Big Macro Force That's Been Driving Stocks Higher for Years

The Big Macro Force That's Been Driving Stocks Higher for Years

Stocks have gone up over the years because corporate earnings continue to grow. That part is straightforward. But in addition to rising stock prices, we've also seen rising stock market valuations. Fo...

11 Apr 36min

How Shipping Insurance Really Works During a War

How Shipping Insurance Really Works During a War

When the conflict with Iran started, some of the first headlines we saw had to do with shipping insurance. Marine insurers were said to be canceling war risk coverage for vessels going through the Str...

10 Apr 53min

Thomas Peterffy on Interactive Brokers' Plan to Professionalize Prediction Markets

Thomas Peterffy on Interactive Brokers' Plan to Professionalize Prediction Markets

Right now, when you think about prediction markets, you basically think about two main companies: Polymarket and Kalshi. And then when you think of what's being traded on those platforms, there's a wh...

9 Apr 50min

Search Engine Presents: Are you a good driver?

Search Engine Presents: Are you a good driver?

The story of how a secret project at Google led to driverless cars on American roads. And, an answer to the question: are the robots actually safer drivers than we are? Find Part 2: “The Trial of the ...

8 Apr 1h 8min

Gina Raimondo on How European Industry Is Getting Crushed

Gina Raimondo on How European Industry Is Getting Crushed

The relationship between the US and Europe is deteriorating along both security and economic dimensions. The Trump administration has imposed tariffs, while also being sharply critical of NATO allies....

6 Apr 45min

Scott Bok Explains What Investment Bankers Actually Do All Day

Scott Bok Explains What Investment Bankers Actually Do All Day

There's obviously a lot of talk these days about AI and possible destruction of white collar jobs. Intuitively bankers might be expected to be victims of this. But before we can answer whether AI can ...

3 Apr 54min

This Is How to Tell if Writing Was Made by AI

This Is How to Tell if Writing Was Made by AI

When you consider the fact that many people don't know how and where to place a comma, it's safe to say that AI is already better than most people at writing. It's clean copy. It can be surprisingly p...

2 Apr 48min

Populært innen Business og økonomi

stopp-verden
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
dine-penger-pengeradet
e24-podden
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
rss-borsmorgen-okonominyhetene
pengepodden-2
livet-pa-veien-med-jan-erik-larssen
pengesnakk
finansredaksjonen
utbytte
morgenkaffen-med-finansavisen
rss-politisk-preik
lederpodden
liberal-halvtime
rss-pa-konto
tid-er-penger-en-podcast-med-peter-warren
stormkast-med-valebrokk-stordalen
rss-sunn-okonomi
rss-markedspuls-2