Consumers May Be Paying Off Debt And Saving Much Less Than Believed

From "Bank Losses Lead to Drop in Credit Card Debt" by Christine Hauser in The New York Times:

The substantial drop in credit card debt in the United States since early 2009 has been widely attributed to newly frugal consumers. But analysts say that a significant portion of the decline is actually the result of financial institutions writing off billions of dollars in credit card debt as losses.

Not mentioned in the article, banks are also writing off mortgage debt. Consumers may not be saving as much during this recession as many economists and the press have stated.