Consumers taking on debt continues to reach high levels as inflation on consumer goods adds pressure to many wallets, especially as pandemic savings begin to dwindle for many Americans.

University of Cambridge Janeway professor of financial economics Constantine Yannelis joins Wealth! to give insight into the state of the consumer amidst current inflation levels.

"It's not surprising that credit card debt has been surging, given everything that's going on in the economy. And we already mentioned that real wages have been stagnating or even falling a little bit, as many households just haven't seen the wage gains that kept up with inflation. As a consequence of this, a lot of people are just struggling to keep up with higher prices by borrowing more on credit cards."

He continue with: "They're also paying more in credit card debt because of the revolving nature of the debt, interest rates are much higher than they were a couple of years ago, and that means that credit card payments are higher. So it makes sense that we've seen this huge spike in credit card payments. "

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth!

This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino