Soaring household debt nears the 2008 peak

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U.S. household debt jumped in the fourth quarter of 2016, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Thursday, bringing total indebtedness just short of the peak previously reached in 2008 right before the financial crisis hit.

Households added $226 billion in debt, or nearly 2 percent, in the quarter to bring total debt to $12.58 trillion. That is just 0.8 percent below the $12.68 trillion peak in the third quarter of 2008, just before the financial disaster struck.

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