So concludes Mark Whitehouse for The Wall Street Journal, here. Of a decline of $610 billion in debt, only $22 billion is due to deleveraging. The vast majority of the decline is due to default, over a half trillion dollars.
Michael Pento here apparently hasn't gotten the message, but points out that whatever else may be said about consumers not adding to their debt profile, the government has picked up the slack, and stratospherically so. For that reason he abjures all talk of debt deflation.
