The Ignorant Investor

Sounds like the party is now into the wee hours of the morning and people are starting to put on their coats:

WASHINGTON -- The number of people in the U.S. past due on their credit-card bills rose to a record in the second quarter of this year, the American Bankers Association said yesterday. . . "The last two quarters have not been pretty," said James Chessen, ABA's chief economist.

And under a headline Mortgage Lenders Tighten Standards:

After years of easy money, some mortgage lenders are beginning to tighten their standards. . . Lenders have rolled out a raft of new mortgage products in recent years that have made housing purchases more affordable and allowed many people to extract cash from their homes' equity without boosting their monthly payments. . .
Now, in what could be the first signs of a reversal, some lenders are starting to raise the bar on making these products available to new borrowers.