Nov. consumer credit surges by $20.4 billion

Market Watch ^ | 1/9/12 | Greg Robb

[cynwoody]

I guess the O Zero posse got the word about mortgage relief on they way, so, why not credit card relief soon too?

The article reports credit card debt up 8.5%, but student debt up even more, at 10.7%. Zero is already trying his best to forgive student loans. Of course, easy student loans just means tuition will rise that much faster.

[listenhillary]

This is a sometimes leftist bent outlet, but for what it’s worth they disagree. He could be totally FOS for all that I know.

THE AGE OF CONSUMER DELEVERAGING IS OVER
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-age-of-consumer-deleveraging-is-over-2012-1?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=moneygame

[SatinDoll]

Do you have some inside information on this?

[cynwoody]

He's just reposting Federal Reserve data. His chart makes it appear that consumer deleveraging bottomed out in early 2010, and we've bee releveraging since. However, he also notes, "Now, technically the population has grown since last year, so on a per-capita basis, the average consumer still carries, less debt, but... still." I would think per-capita would be the way to view such data.

Of course, speaking of population growth, it's worthy of note that, even though the population has increased, the number of people in the workforce has decreased. Recently, someone calculated that, if everybody who was in the workforce in 2007 were still looking for work (i.e., hadn't given up), then the unemployment rate would be 11.3%, not 8.5% or whatever it the official number is.

[4rcane]

buying consumer items on credit is not a good thing. You have to pay it back with interest, plus that money could’ve been better spent investing instead of consuming