So where’s the growth supposed to come from?
People who don’t have jobs don’t run up their credit card balances.
Not much of a surprise. But in November it added up to a record 14th straight monthly drop in credit card debt.
Today, January 8, the Federal Reserve reported that credit-card debt fell by $13.7 billion in November. Total seasonally adjusted consumer debt fell $17.49 billion. That’s equal to an 8.5% annual rate of decline. The drop in total consumer debt was far larger than the $4 billion that economists had been expecting.
The consumer debt numbers lag behind such economic indicators as unemployment by about a month. But the December unemployment numbers, also released today, argue that the December consumer debt numbers will continue to show that consumers are cutting back (or that banks are cutting back for them by reducing credit lines.) Read more
