The Banking Crisis of 2025. Bet on it.

 

(Just don't use a gambling app to do it.  And don't try to convince me that gambling apps aren't related to the Buy Now Pay Later phenomenon.)

Klarna, Affirm, AfterPay, and all of the other Buy Now Pay Later "services" that have been created or will be created in the time it takes to type out this post are working yet another game of hot potato, this time with millions of "small" debts packaged and sold from bank to bank and then from debt collection agency to debt collection agency- because the companies allegedly taking on debt by fronting stupid, financially illiterate consumers the money they need to live beyond their means are not even building their business model on the return of that money plus interest.  You know, like actual banks.  

Instead, this is all about collecting fees.  These companies charge a fee to every business they can talk into accepting their "service" on the theory that the Buy Now, Pay Later option encourages additional spending (a theory that seems to be holding up in fact.)  That fee is collected every time a customer picks the BNPL option.  Then Klarna, Affirm, AfterPay etc. simply sell the debt to someone else, washing their hands of it and walking away with the money.  When the system crashes under a mountain of unpaid and unpayable debt, no problem- their books are clean, and they'll move on to the next scam.

It's so ingenious, it's a wonder it took so long for us to come to this.  I mean, shopping online is in it's third decade already.  Shopping using phone apps is in it's second decade.  I'm guessing this shift from old-fashioned credit card use and Layaway is just another product of the economy?  Or another jewel in the crown of our consumerist I Want It Now I Need It Now I Deserve It Now culture?  

Probably a good guess, considering that credit card companies, which I thought were already the epitome of Buy Now Pay Later Convenience, are getting into the BNPL business by copying the four-easy-payments strategy of Klarna, Affirm, AfterPay, etc.....that's right, the people who brought Buy Now Pay Later to the masses after World War II are now going all-in on...Buy Now, Pay Later.

Whatever the reason, between Buy Now Pay Later and the normalization of gambling, we are headed into the abyss here and the third (or is it fourth?) near-Depression of my lifetime is just around the corner.  Bet on it.  But not with an app.