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The charts, graphs and comments in my Trading Blog represent my technical analysis and observations of a variety of world markets...
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Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Consumer Credit Levels Higher Than in 2007/08

Consumer Credit Data released on Wednesday shows, firstly, a correction in the prior month's release data down to 16.3B from 19.3B, and, secondly, a rise in the latest month's data to 17.8B, as shown on the graph below (note that the graph does not show the prior month's data correctly yet).

The levels of consumer debt accumulated during the past three months are higher than they were in 2007/08 just prior to the financial crisis...in fact, they're at their highest levels seen since January 2000...an interesting scenario considering that Personal Income has declined, as mentioned in my post of March 1st.

Add to this potentially volatile and unsustainable mixture, the desire of the Fed to fulfill their "dual mandate" of improving unemployment and controlling inflation (as defined by their own formula and not based on the actual retail cost of goods and services by which the public is bound) by making even more easy credit available to the markets by whatever methods they deem appropriate, and it seems to be a recipe bound for disaster...and one from which the consumer won't/can't recover.