Good article for us who are in the "dumber than tax cat" demographic. Thanks for that!

I was thinking the same thing. I have 3 credit cards with 0% introductory apr for the first 12 months. Remind me again how that we're in a credit crisis?

@petrarch1608: Has the credit line on any of your cards changed recently? That's happening with a few banks, and it's likely to spread.

@petrarch1608: I still don't see evidence that the credit crunch is drifting into the prime market either. I keep hearing that, but I keep getting credit offers in the mail. And I'm a prime borrower. Citibank, ostensibly the worst-hit US Bank, won't stop offering me HELOCs. I looked at some (cheap) vacation property and instantly had mortgage companies dogging me to borrow. I'm stymied as to where this notion that the prime credit market is going to evaporate is coming from.

The way i see it this whole mess was caused by an economy reliant on consumer spending for 2/3 of GDP is insane. Doubly insane given that real incomes haven't gone up with said GDP. The gap is filled by borrowing. I know I'm not the only person who thinks this is never sustainable.

Businesses should be driving the economy. Government and consumer spending should be a distant second.

All I know is that the current pay off loan amount for the house I live in is half of what was paid for it 15 years ago. We did refi four years ago, and got the money to reroof the house, and got a lower payment, although that's gone up considerably, due to insurance costs in Florida only. But it's till cheaper than renting at this point.

Actually, from what I've read elsewhere - some people are paying off their credit card bills before the mortgages.

Oh, and the credit crisis is mainly the big boys: the banks, brokerages, hedge funds, private equity, corporations, etc.