Seattle Bubble Forum Archive

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Wasn't the "financial crisis" supposed to be contained within the subprime market?
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The US financial crisis is spreading from subprime borrowers to wealthier consumers, with evidence mounting that more affluent people are failing to pay their mortgages and credit card balances.
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Growing concerns over the financial health of richer borrowers are prompting banks and card issuers to tighten lending practices in moves that could futher dampen consumer confidence and spending more......
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....Senior bankers say that after the subprime debacle, the worsening outlook of "prime" portfolios shows the crisis is far from over and could inflict substantial losses on financial institutions....
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.....Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan's chairman and chief executive, recently told Wall Street analysts that the outlook for prime mortgages was "terrible" and the rate of delinquencies could double or treble from current levels of about 4 per cent......
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Are they "wealthy" because they have a high credit limit or is "wealth" defined as high net worth?

Good point David. Having a "prime" credit rating does not necessarily mean you are wealthy.

This article is referring to a bloc commonly called the Subprime Fat Cats. These people used to be known as well-to-do. They were the doctors, lawyers, local business persons. But since American culture recognized that only the top 0.01% of the population is worth a darn, this group that used to be upper crust was relegated to being pretty much as worthless as everyone else who isn't a CEO, a movie star, or Paris Hilton.