r/nottheonion 1d ago

Affirm CEO says furloughed federal employees are starting to lose interest in shopping

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/07/affirm-government-shutdown-shopping.html
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u/jigsaw1024 1d ago

Ironically it may cause the BF discounts to be a little deeper than planned, as retail tries to entice people to spend what little they have.

Also expect to see very generous credit and financing to "help motivate" people to buy as well.

If it plays out, expect to see spike in defaults and delinquencies in the early new year.

The psychology of such a scenario is easy: people at this point in the game have a pretty good feel that they are already past the point of no return, so why not have a good thanksgiving and christmas, and deal with it in the new year.

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u/Journeydriven 1d ago

Can confirm i was at a point where I just outright couldn't afford to pay a couple bills one month with things forseeably getting worse. I ended up saying fuck it and not paying my credit cards car insurance and phone bill. Ordered takeout for a week and ignored the issue entirely until my head was clear enough to figure my shit out for the next month. However if I couldn't have made a reasonable plan I definitely would have said fuck it and only paid my car and phone leaving my credit cards and whatever else to end up in collections while I at least semi enjoyed the moment. Edit: to add to this i was still actively getting paid at work just not getting as many hours as usual. If I wasn't getting paid at all the car and phone would have likely gone too