The credit cards are comingggggg

As Economy Slows, Lenders Begin to Curb Credit Cards

First came the mortgage crisis. Now comes the credit card crunch.
After years of flooding Americans with credit card offers and sky-high credit lines, lenders are sharply curtailing both just as an eroding economy squeezes consumers.
Lenders wrote off an estimated $21 billion in bad credit card loans in the first half of 2008 as borrowers defaulted on their payments. With companies laying off tens of thousands of workers amid the crisis, the industry stands to lose at least another $55 billion over the next year and a half, analysts say. Currently, the total losses amount to 5.5 percent of credit card debt outstanding, and could surpass the 7.9 percent that occurred after the technology bubble burst in 2001.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/business/29credit.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin