Joe Weisenthal writing for Business Insider reports Consumer Credit Demolishes Expectations, Grows $19 Billion.
It's hard to think that the economy is going into any kind of recession with numbers like these. For the second straight month we just got a HUGE number on consumer credit
Consumer credit expanded by $19 billion in December. That's far more than the $7 billion that was expected by economists.
This chart from Reuters' Soctty Barber basically tells it all.
The data on which that chart was produced was the
Consumer Credit - G.19 government report.
Demolishing the Revolving Credit Side of the StoryLance Roberts of Streettalk Live demolishes the revolving credit side of Weisenthal 's story (a $4 billion December rise) in an excellent perspective
Consumer Credit and the American Conundrum.
Demolishing the Non-Revolving Credit Side of the StoryMy job is to demolish the non-revolving side of Weisenthal's story, and it's an exceptionally easy task to do.
Non-Revolving credit rose $11.8 billion in December. However, $8.8 billion of that is growth in federal government loans (which just happens to be where student loans are parked).
Here are some charts I put together stripping out federal government loans.
Non-Revolving Loans Minus Government Loans
Non-Revolving Loans Minus Government Loans Detail