© 2026 All Rights reserved WUSF
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our daily newsletter, delivered first thing weekdays, keeps you connected to your community with news, culture, national NPR headlines, and more.
BREAKING NEWS: Iranian supreme leader killed in Israeli airstrike, source says | The Latest

American household debt passes $17 trillion

For the first time, the American household debt level has passed $17 trillion. The record high comes amid an increasingly unstable economic picture for the country. The major areas where Americans have debt are mortgages, auto loans, student loans, retail cards and home equity lines of credit.

Roben Farzad, host of public radio’s “Full Disclosure,” joins Here & Now‘s Robin Young to unpack the numbers and discuss what’s behind surging household debt.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Tags
Thanks to you, WUSF is here — delivering fact-based news and stories that reflect our community.⁠ Your support powers everything we do.