not see the Devil...
in the details...
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First, Steven, this is the only serious discussion of the effects of student loans on this months numbers we have seen, and we have looked. Well done.
Second, there is another data set you might want to incorporate into these charts, namely the use of debit cards as opposed to credit cards.
True, this is skewered (sp?) by the swipe fee problems, but the huge increase in the use of debit cards and/or cash to pay for consumer goods and services is directly connected to the measurement of the deleveraging by some or most of U.S.
However, IF an increase in the use of "credit cards" is matched by a decrease in "debit card" use, then there may not really BE an increase in "credit", but only a change in the way we are paying for "stuff", from China, at Walmart, this month.
Like you, we have watched the decline in credit card balances, to attempt to see if that was caused by a decline in use, OR was caused by card cancellations and write offs. What we, too, watched was the huge shift to using debit cards.
What many of U.S. figured out was that using debit or cash eliminated all "late" and "overdraft" fees. Given the fact that the Big Bad Banksters make more money off those fees than they do off the interest that they charge, possibly WE are the real cause of all their financial problems:)
We "swiped" their fees; and now the evil empire is "swiping" back
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Consumer Credit Contracts Due to Student Loans
http://econintersect.com/
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