Art of Dental Finance and Management
Jul 1, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min · 14 segments
Credit card debt is one of the biggest financial threats facing dentists today, and rising interest rates could make it even harder to escape. In this episode, Art Wiederman explains why so many…
Art WiedermanHost
So we're in the middle of 2026, and I want to really start off talking a little bit about interest rates.

Now, the Federal Reserve Board has just met in the past couple of weeks, and they have indicated that they are not going to raise or lower interest rates at this point.

However, what they are indicating to the public, and it hammered the stock market one day when they came out with this, is that they believe that inflation is not necessarily under control.

We are pushing over 4% inflation And when inflation goes up, interest rates tend to go up.

Its job is to keep that balance between inflation and interest rates where we have a stable economy.

And what they've said is that interest rates are going to be potentially, potentially going up at least one time before the end of 2026.

Now, what does that mean? That means that interest rates on automobiles are and potentially own mortgages and lines of credit and e-locks and all that kind of stuff, and credit cards.

Now you're saying, wait a minute, credit card interest rates are already ridiculous.

But if the numbers go up, that the interest rates go up, credit card interest rates could very well go up.

Back when the pandemic was at its highest level, if you will, nobody was spending money.

As of the first quarter of 2026, Credit card interest rates are in excess of $1.25 trillion.

They're down a little bit, but they're still at one of their highest levels ever.

And they're actually making up for the three or four years that they didn't spend money.

But what is interesting that's happening is that 13% of credit card balances in this country, so 13% of the people that have credit cards, were at least 90 days delinquent in even making any payments.

Now, I never understood why interest rates were so high on credit cards when you can get a home mortgage for, right now it's about 6%, and you can get a car loan for not much different than that, maybe 7%.

So we're in the middle of 2026, and I want to really start off talking a little bit about interest rates.

Now, the Federal Reserve Board has just met in the past couple of weeks, and they have indicated that they are not going to raise or lower interest rates at this point.

However, what they are indicating to the public, and it hammered the stock market one day when they came out with this, is that they believe that inflation is not necessarily under control.

We are pushing over 4% inflation And when inflation goes up, interest rates tend to go up.

Its job is to keep that balance between inflation and interest rates where we have a stable economy.

And what they've said is that interest rates are going to be potentially, potentially going up at least one time before the end of 2026.

Now, what does that mean? That means that interest rates on automobiles are and potentially own mortgages and lines of credit and e-locks and all that kind of stuff, and credit cards.

Now you're saying, wait a minute, credit card interest rates are already ridiculous.

But if the numbers go up, that the interest rates go up, credit card interest rates could very well go up.

Back when the pandemic was at its highest level, if you will, nobody was spending money.

As of the first quarter of 2026, Credit card interest rates are in excess of $1.25 trillion.

They're down a little bit, but they're still at one of their highest levels ever.

And they're actually making up for the three or four years that they didn't spend money.

But what is interesting that's happening is that 13% of credit card balances in this country, so 13% of the people that have credit cards, were at least 90 days delinquent in even making any payments.

Now, I never understood why interest rates were so high on credit cards when you can get a home mortgage for, right now it's about 6%, and you can get a car loan for not much different than that, maybe 7%.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.