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US credit card debt in the free fall

US credit card debt in the free fall
By Daily Maverick Legacy
09 Oct 2009
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As we all know, every coin has two faces and the global recession, ushered in by the roaring good times, had at least some good effect. The big winner is probably the newly-acquired sanity; Americans are working more (good), buying less (not good), borrowing less (very good) and are having a very icy relationship with their credit cards (very good, indeed!) The figures by the US Federal Reserve show that borrowers have reduced their debt for the eleventh straight month and that the annual rate of revolving debt is down 13.1% compared to the pre-crisis days of 2008. And the savings rate is up to 4.2%, from recent pretty much zero level. That is all great news, then. That’s if it’s going to stick once the bad times are over, and the newest collection of Jimmy Choo shoes and Italian cars hit the shop windows.

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