Brian Dake

Findings published by Bankrate on Monday indicate that nearly half of credit card holders – about 49% – are carrying credit card debt from month to month. That marks a sharp increase from just two years ago, when about 39% of Americans with credit cards carried debt from month to month.

More than half of Americans carrying credit card debt have done so for over a year.

Even more concerning is that of those holding credit card debt, 10% do not think they will ever be able to pay off their bills. Another 25% expect they will pay off their debt at some point – but that it will be at least five years in the future.

The Bankrate survey comes shortly after the New York Federal Reserve reported that total credit card debt surged to $1.08 trillion in the three-month period from July to September, an increase of $48 billion, or 4.6% from the previous quarter. It marks the highest level on record in Fed data dating back to 2003 and the eighth consecutive annual increase.

The rise in credit card usage and debt is particularly concerning because interest rates are astronomically high right now. The average credit card annual percentage rate, or APR, hit a new record of 20.72% last week, according to a Bankrate database that goes back to 1985. The previous record was 19% in July 1991.

Return fraud is a major concern for retailers as organized retail crime continues to run rampant throughout the industry, according to Mark Mathews, executive director of research for the National Retail Federation (NRF).

This type of fraud occurs when a person abuses a merchant’s return policy, which can be done through a variety of means. It’s already caused over $100 billion in overall losses for retailers last year, according to recent NRF data.

However, this type of scam isn’t just carried out by organized crime groups, which have grown in scale and complexity. It’s also an issue with everyday customers.

“There are different motivations,” Mathews said. Criminals seek out this type of fraud to generate cash. For instance, in some cases, criminals will look for receipts that were thrown away and use them to return the same item to collect cash, or they will try and replicate receipts for stolen products.

In other cases, customers may seek out this type of scam because they want to use a product before returning it. This type of return fraud is called “wardrobing,” and is one of the most common, according to Mathews.

In 2023, the total return rate was 14.5%. Of those, the NRF expects 13.7% to be fraudulent, according to Mathews.

The issue is that returning items in general is a costly process for retailers. When items are returned, they will be sent to a return center to be inspected, repacked and shipped back to the store if it’s not defective. But “in many cases, it actually has to be thrown away because it wasn’t handled properly,” Mathews said.

To try and mitigate the process of returns, companies have been making it easier for consumers to understand whether an item is right for them before purchasing.

This includes adding more information about products online and enhancing technology so that customers can virtually try on fashion products or see what a piece of furniture would look like in their home, for instance.

As Wisconsin lawmakers spar over the possibility of further tax cuts in 2024, a report released today found that the state’s tax burden remains near its all-time low.

The tax burden, or amount of money that state and local governments collect in taxes divided by the total earnings of its residents, is a way of measuring how onerous Wisconsin’s tax environment is for its people.

In 2022, the ratio dropped to its lowest on record, according to findings from the Wisconsin Policy Forum, and the think tank’s new report shows the burden largely remained at that low water mark in 2023.

There was a modest increase in state and local tax collections in 2023, with governments collecting a combined $36.23 billion, a 2.5% rise from the year prior. Wisconsinites actually paid less in taxes to the federal government last year.

Residents also experienced only a small increase in incomes last year, ticking up by 2%. That means they didn’t gain much wiggle room in being able to meet their tax bills.

Overall, 10% of Wisconsin residents’ incomes went toward taxes in 2023, with the tax burden consistently falling in recent years. The Wisconsin Policy Forum found the burden has been less than 11% of personal income each of the last nine years, something which had not occurred since at least the 1970s.

Nationally, data from the Tax Foundation found Wisconsin had a higher than average tax burden in 2022, though it fell well short of New York, which has the highest in the country at just shy of 16%.

The national debt – which measures what the U.S. owes its creditors — hit $34 trillion as of Friday afternoon, according to new data published by the Treasury Department.

“We are beginning a new year, but our national debt remains on the same damaging and unsustainable path,” said Michael Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which advocates for fiscal sustainability.

The national debt is expected to nearly double in size over the next three decades, according to the latest findings from the Congressional Budget Office. At the end of 2022, the national debt grew to about 97% of gross domestic product.

Under current law, that figure is expected to skyrocket to 181% at the end of 2053 – a debt burden that will far exceed any previous level.

“Though our level of debt is dangerous for both our economy and for national security, America just cannot stop borrowing,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Even more worrisome is that the spike in interest rates over the past year and a half has made the cost of servicing the national debt more expensive.

That is because as interest rates rise, the federal government’s borrowing costs on its debt will also increase. In fact, interest payments on the national debt are projected to be the fastest-growing part of the federal budget over the next three decades, according to the CRFB.

Payments are expected to triple from nearly $475 billion in fiscal year 2022 to a stunning $1.4 trillion in 2032. By 2053, the interest payments are projected to surge to $5.4 trillion. To put that into perspective, that will be more than the U.S. spends on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and all other mandatory and discretionary spending programs.

The price to ship your letters and packages is going up in the new year.

Starting January 21, 2024, the price for a First-Class Forever U.S. Postage Stamp will increase from 66 cents to 68 cents, according to the U.S. Postal Service. The prices for domestic postcard stamps will also increase by two cents from 51 cents to 53 cents and international postcards will increase from $1.50 to $1.55.

In addition to stamp prices increasing, the price to send priority mail and other postal services will also increase on January 21.

USPS Ground Advantage prices will increase by 5.4 percent, Priority Mail service prices will increase by 5.7 percent, and Priority Mail Express service prices will increase by 5.9 percent.

The price for USPS Connect Local will remain unchanged.

As part of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development’s (DWD) continued efforts to modernize its Unemployment Insurance services, the agency is launching a project to upgrade the Unemployment Insurance employer portal while also progressing with work on new tools to calculate benefits for claimants.

“The new employer portal will offer significant efficiencies and streamline processes for employers,” said DWD Secretary Amy Pechacek. “Greater efficiency for employers will also speed processing times for claimants, reflecting our priority to improve service for all DWD customers.”

The new employer portal also will increase security and offer the following:

• Modern design and layout;
• Expanded functionality that incorporates all UI wage submission requirements and allows users to respond to requests for verification related to a claim; and
• Secure messaging and document upload options for more convenient and secure communication

More details about the latest upgrades to the UI benefits system and the employer portal project can be found in this UI Modernization Update video. Previously reported progress on modernization includes:

Wage growth in Wisconsin has been slowing down this year, but inflation-adjusted personal incomes are expected to grow slightly after declining last year.

The state’s year-over-year change in annual pay was 5.6 percent in November, down from 8 percent in the same month of 2022, according to a report from ADP Research Institute.

Liv Wang, lead data scientist at ADP Research Institute, said wage growth has been elevated since the pandemic, but it’s now moving toward a “more sustainable level” as inflation cools. Wang said she anticipates wage growth will continue to slow over the next year or two.

“One of the factors is we are moving away from the pandemic effects, (and) things are cooling in the labor market,” she said. “Also, the financial environment is tightening as the (Federal Reserve) keeps raising interest rates, so employers may be preparing for the tightening situation right now.”

That slowdown has been felt across sectors in 2023, but has been especially pronounced in the leisure and hospitality industry, according to the ADP report.

The ADP report showed median wage gains in leisure and hospitality nationally far outpaced all other industries from late 2021 through 2022, peaking last March when they were 16.9 percent higher than the previous year. The next closest industry that month was trade, transportation and utilities at 8.8 percent wage growth.

This year, wage growth in leisure and hospitality slowed significantly. As of November, median wages in that sector were 6.5 percent higher than the previous year. Most other industries came in between 5 and 6 percent.

U.S. retail sales rose 3.1% between November 1 and December 24, as shoppers looked for last-minute Christmas deals amid big promotions, a Mastercard report showed on Tuesday.

The increase is lower than the 3.7% growth Mastercard forecast in September and last year’s 7.6% rise as higher interest rates and inflation pressured consumer spending.

Ecommerce sales grew at the slower pace of 6.3% compared to last year’s 10.6% as the popularity of online shopping came off pandemic highs, the report showed.

Sales in the apparel and restaurant categories rose 2.4% and 7.8%, respectively, during the holiday shopping period, according to the Mastercard SpendingPulse report, while sales of electronics fell 0.4%.

In a decision released Friday, the court’s liberal majority said the current maps violate the Wisconsin Constitution’s requirement that districts must be contiguous.

Writing for the majority, Justice Jill Karofsky said the constitution’s contiguity requirements “mean what they say,” a mandate she said was supported by past precedent and common sense.

“Because the current state legislative districts contain separate, detached territory and therefore violate the constitution’s contiguity requirements, we enjoin the Wisconsin Elections Commission from using the current legislative maps in future elections,” Karofsky said.

Democratic voters who filed the redistricting lawsuit also argued the court’s former conservative majority violated the constitution’s separation of powers doctrine when it chose maps that were vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Karofsky said the court didn’t need to address that claim after deciding the maps do not satisfy the constitution’s contiguity requirement.

Karofsky also said the court will not order new elections for all 132 state lawmakers, as Democratic plaintiffs requested, calling such a move a “drastic remedy.”

The court did not immediately draw new districts to replace the current ones but said it would begin that process in case the Legislature and governor are not able to agree on new maps.

“Remedial maps must be adopted prior to the 2024 elections,” Karofsky wrote. “We are hopeful that the legislative process will produce new legislative district maps. However, should that fail to happen, this court is prepared to adopt remedial maps.”

Housing affordability plummeted this year to the lowest level on record amid the astronomical rise in mortgage rates, which put ownership out of reach for millions of Americans, according to a new report published by Redfin.

Just 15.5% of homes for sale in 2023 were considered affordable for the typical U.S. household, the lowest level on record since Redfin began tracking the data in 2013. It marks a steep drop from the typical 40% seen before the pandemic home-buying boom began, and the 20.7% figure recorded in 2022.

The decline in affordability is partially due to a drop in listings – which fell 21.2% over the course of the year – but is largely a result of the spike in mortgage rates and subsequent rise in home prices this year.

Combined, the two have helped to push the typical portion of average wages nationwide required for major homeownership expenses up to 35%, according to a separate report published by real estate data provider ATTOM.