Meredith Whitney, long time bear on the banking sector, is pointing to the possibility that reductions in credit card lines could result in a sharp drop in consumer spending over the next year or two. In a recent television interview she predicted that outstanding credit card lines in the United States would drop from $5 trillion to $2.3 trillion by the end of 2010, a drop of more than 50 percent. Having less available credit, Whitney argues, will result in even less consumer spending and major problems for the economy.

While I don't disagree that credit card issuers are going to reduce credit lines (we are already seeing this trend and there is no reason to think it will cease anytime soon), I am skeptical about how much this will really impact consumer spending. The main reason is because there is only about $800 billion in outstanding credit card debt in the U.S. right now, and that figure has not been growing as fast as may have thought in recent years. While this is clearly a large number ($2,600 per person), it is dwarfed by the credit lines currently outstanding and as a result, the credit line reductions should not really have a major impact on day-to-day spending.

Essentially, Whitney is predicting that the credit utilization rate will increase from 16% currently (800 billion divided by 5 trillion) to 35% within two years. For someone with $2,600 in credit card debt, that means their credit limit will be reduced from $16,000 to $7,500. While that may make the consumer a little less confident that they have a huge cushion of credit to fall back on in the case of an emergency, I don't really agree that it will result in a significant pullback in regular spending habits.

Additionally, this action by the nation's leading credit card companies may in fact help them as well as our consumers, who hopefully will realize that they should have a few thousand dollars in a savings account in case of an emergency rather than assuming they will get cards should something unexpected happen. This would be a welcome event for our banking system, which benefits greatly from an increasing deposit base. As for Whitney's assertion that a credit card bubble is the next shoe to drop on our economy; call me a skeptic. The data simply isn't all that scary to me and if we slowly lower our dependence on credit cards, our economy will be on stronger ground as a result.