Ross Kilburn is the founder of American Default and creator of the American Distress Index (ADI), a composite measure that tracks U.S. household financial stress across 96 indicators drawn from federal data sources including the Federal Reserve, Bureau of Labor Statistics, CFPB, HUD, and the New York Fed. The ADI fills a gap left when the last major consumer distress index was discontinued in 2013. It synthesizes data across five dimensions — household buffer depletion, debt stress, financial conditions, cost pressure, and labor market health — into a single score that has read "Elevated" for 84% of the post-2000 era. His central research finding is that household savings depletion leads debt stress by approximately nine quarters, making the ADI a leading indicator system rather than a...