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The US is still a subprime nation

By Melvin Backman
Published

The Corporation for Enterprise Development, an anti-poverty think tank, just released its Asset Scorecard for 2015, a report that looks at everything from business ownership to job quality across the United States. One stat that jumps out is the credit score data, specifically how many people have less-than-stellar credit. Surprise: it’s most of them.

The organization also published historical data on credit stores going back to 2001, showing how the financial crisis—the foreclosures, student loan defaults, and other economic ills—continues to cast a shadow over the American consumer. In nearly three-quarters of states, more than half of residents now have a subprime credit rating, a bit below the post-crisis peak but well above the pre-crisis norm.

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