I haven’t done an economic SitRep in a while. But after looking at some of the numbers coming out lately…I think it’s time. It’s just too dang important to by-pass the reality of what’s going on.

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I will be covering:

• Jobs
• Credit Card Debt
• Price of Food
• Family Economic Safety Margin

JOBS –

Take a look at this:

That’s a 249,000-job difference between the economic picture we had been told was happening and what to expect…vs reality and truth.

May is especially ugly:

• On June 5th, Americans were told the economy had added 172,000 jobs in May.
• Then that number was revised down to 129,000.
• Then revised down again to 63,000.
• Almost two out of every three jobs originally reported for May simply weren’t ever there.

June wasn’t much better…almost two-thirds of the jobs we were originally told had been created weren’t there either.

Then we came into July’s jobs massacre with economists expecting somewhere around 80,000 new jobs.

Actual result? We lost 23,000 jobs…and how much will that get revised downward once reality is shared in the coming weeks and months?

Was somebody lying all along? I don’t know.

But I would have to wonder…were they actually lying or just incompetent with the numbers?

And the workforce itself isn’t exactly giving me warm fuzzies either.

The American labor force is also more than a million people smaller than it was just a year ago.

Add it to those actual “real” job numbers…and I don’t like what I’m seeing.

CREDIT CARDS –

Americans are carrying roughly $1¼ trillion in credit-card balances, putting us near record territory. That by itself doesn’t necessarily put me into panic mode.

This does concern me…90+ days delinquent. Ninety days past due is considered serious delinquency.

And the New York Fed just reported that the percentage of credit-card balances 90+ days delinquent had risen from 7.6% in late 2022 to 12.8% in early 2026. That’’s a 68% increase in serious delinquencies!

And then I found something else that helps show just how financially squeezed some Americans have become…what they’re borrowing money to buy…FOOD!

FOOD –

The Federal Reserve found that about 20% of people who used “Buy Now, Pay Later” had used it for groceries or food delivery.

Here’s the number that got me and should scare us both…Of those people, 45% said they used Buy Now, Pay Later because it was the only way they could afford the purchase of food!

Think about what that means; not a television, not a bass boat, not a new phone, not even a vacation…FOOD…just to eat today!

HOUSING –

The July 2026 median existing-home price was $434,100, up 2.0% from $425,700 a year earlier. That’s also the 37th consecutive month of year-over-year price increases.

Then to make it worse…July existing-home sales Down 1.7%.

Then worse again…30-year mortgage rates recently around 6.7%.

A $434,100 median house financed at roughly 6.7% doesn’t exactly scream affordable to me. But how unaffordable?

Take today’s median existing-home price and mortgage rate and compare it to the same thing just 10 years ago and you get this…

mortgage payment increased from $871 to $2,239 per month!!

That’s more than two and half times larger house payment in just 10 years! (157% higher!)

Now you see how this continues to make housing more and more unaffordable for US citizens. At today’s home prices, mortgage rates and household incomes, roughly 66% of American households can’t afford the median-priced home.

They can’t afford a home!

SUMMARY –

So…Where are we?

• Jobs: Terrible situation and continues to get worse.
• Credit card debt:
  • Second highest in history…$1.25trillion
  • A huge increase in serious delinquency (90+days late)
• Home sales falling while home prices going up
• Food prices up and people having to charge their food to be able to eat.

And that brings me to one last number that quite frankly shocked me.

Family Economic Safety Margin…Every year the Federal Reserve asks Americans how they would handle an unexpected $400 expense. Nothing catastrophic…just an unexpected $400 expense.

• In 2021, 68% of adults said they could cover it using cash or its equivalent.
• Today, 63% of adults said they could cover it using cash or its equivalent.
• For parents living with children under 18…only 55% of adults said they could cover it using cash or its equivalent.

Think about that for a minute and let it sink in. $400…that’s not an economic catastrophe. But, almost half of families with children don’t have enough financial safety margin to simply absorb it without borrowing it.

I never looked at it before using that term…”financial safety margin”…I’m going to think about that one.

Back to the SitRep…the economy is in rough shape…and that observation is being overly generous. And the economy continues to get worse.

How much worse is it going to get?

How prepared are you for it to get worse?