Despite a 9.1% year-over-year increase in nominal sales, Black Friday data reveals consumers bought 4.1% fewer items and dramatically increased their use of "Buy Now, Pay Later" services. This indicates that inflation, not strong consumer health, is driving top-line revenue growth for corporations.

Technology in finance is a double-edged sword. While it can increase access, it can also be used to gamify trading, encourage impulse spending with 'buy-now-pay-later' schemes, and circumvent traditional consumer protection laws.

Lower-end households are facing such acute financial stress that the 'Buy Now, Pay Later' (BNPL) services, once a sign of accessible credit, are now a precursor to pawning those same goods. This signals a deepening cash crunch and consumer fragility not yet captured in headline data.

Affirm's CEO suggests competitors don't report payment data to credit bureaus as a business strategy. By keeping delinquencies off the 'permanent record,' they can implicitly encourage late payments, from which they profit via fees. Affirm, having no late fees, advocates for full reporting.

We mentally discount costs that are pushed into the future. Marketers leverage this by framing debt as "buy now, pay later," which sounds friendlier and less costly than a traditional loan, encouraging spending despite potentially high interest rates.

Initially designed to help underserved communities afford essential big-ticket items, "Buy Now, Pay Later" services have been warped by capitalism. They now encourage debt for small, instantly-consumed items like a Chipotle burrito, becoming an unhealthy drain on society.

The dramatic rise in BNPL usage across all demographics, including 41% of young shoppers, is a negative forward-looking indicator. While framed as innovation, it's a form of modern usury that reveals consumers cannot afford their purchases, creating a significant, under-discussed credit risk for the economy.

Merchants pay BNPL providers like Affirm more than credit card processors for three key benefits: converting hesitant buyers ('incremental sales'), ensuring high approval rates so the option is useful, and protecting their brand from association with lenders who charge punitive fees.

With many "Buy Now, Pay Later" (BNPL) services not reporting to credit bureaus, lenders face "stacking" risk where consumers take on invisible debt. To get a holistic view, lenders are increasingly incorporating cash flow data, like checking account trends, into their underwriting processes.