Call me crazy (not literally), but what ever happened to the simple fact if you cannot afford something (I.E. pay it off in full at the end of the month) you do not buy it? I love my American Excess simply cash card, but I still pay it off at the end of the month. People need to stop trying to keep up with the Combs's and live in their reality. This could be bad for all of the financial companies. Time to short the XLF again.
Defaulting on credit cards is typically without penalty other than a few years of harassing phone calls which don't even have to be listened to, maybe we should look at that as a big winning trade? Viewing all these defaulters as losers or people with bad judgement/character may just be a little too negative, they may be lining the nest with some free bank $... they might be the very segment of the consuming population that saves the entire planet's economic destruction while all the "smart" really conservative banking community is trying to figure out how to unwind CDO positions....
Trust me, it's also the Australian way! I almost got into a screaming match with a whole bunch of people yesterday at a Christmas dinner by merely saying the property market MAY go down!