The Predictable Contraction Of Consumer Credit

It's time to freak out: the consumer doesn't want to become even more in debt to the banks than he already is. Consumer credit contracted by $3 billion last month. Analysts were expecting it to expand by $10 billion. What were they smoking?

The credit charts are always fun to analyze. They really show the extreme depth of the 2008 collapse. Month over month growth in Revolving Credit has formed a textbook pullback-to-neckline correction wave. Now get ready for it and the other credit charts to contract furiously to new lows.

Let's take a look...