Carlos Lam

U.S. Malls and the State of Retail

"My fundamental belief is we're an aspirational society. We want to upgrade from Chevy to Cadillac to Mercedes."

That is the problem: we buy more than we can afford and, as a consequence, take on leverage. Household debt is at just under 100% of GDP. The latest Federal Reserve data shows that the average American household has about $8,000 in credit card debt. We need to save.