Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is much worse than layaway plans of yore. Layaway plans allowed people to make installments toward an item and pick it up on the last payment. BNPL allows people to take the item with the promise to pay for it in installments over time. Cash-strapped consumers have been using BNPL to pay for meals, groceries, and rent. Every cycle, finance creates another half-baked scheme to book phantom profits, securitize junk and sell it to investors. As with other types of credit, delinquencies are leaping, and Wall Street is working hard to hide bodies now piling up.

Paulina Cachero, Bloomberg Personal Finance Reporter, and Paige Smith, Bloomberg Consumer Finance Reporter, join to discuss this weeks Big Take on Americans Are Racking Up ‘Phantom Debt’ Wall Street Can’t Track. Here is a direct video link.