The Wheels Are Starting to Come Off

When an economy is 70% consumer spending and a large part of that consumer "spending" is driven by the use of credit, you get a very fragile situation.

Rising rates will slow some spending.  Higher standards and tighter underwriting when generating new loans will slow a lot of spending.  That is where we are today.  Nothing sobers the mind of greedy bankers more than losses and failure.  Poorly supervised banks are feeling the sting.

It's hard to "spend" what you don't have and for many "Great Americans", they can "spend" only that which they are able to borrow.

I'm enjoying the compounding interest.  Tomorrow, I will renew a certificate into a new certificate that has a higher rate than what I received last year.  It's a good time to have some money that can "climb the ladder" of increasing interest rates.