While there were few surprises on the surface of today's latest monthly Federal Reserve consumer credit report, which showed that in July total consumer credit increased by $18.5 billion, more than the $15.0 billion expected, on the back of a $2.6 billion increase in revolving credit coupled with $15.9 billion in non-revolving credit...
... there was one quite notable observation which stood out in today's report: a huge historical revision from November 2015 to December 2015, as a result of which some $102 billion in consumer credit was wiped out from the historical record, as shown below, first in revolving, i.e. credit card, debt which was "reduced" by $27 billion:
At the same time, non-revolving, or student and auto loans, credit was also revised lower by a far greater $75 billion, or from $2.83 trillion to $2.76 trillion.
As a result of today's peculiar revision, which was not explained by the Fed, total consumer credit declined by roughly $102 billion from $3.856 trillion as of June 2017, or the last month's pre-revision data point, to $3.754 trillion as of July 2017, which was published today.
Since this is a book-keeping equivalency, and since said consumer credit liaiblity is someone else's asset, we would be fascinated to learn just which entity or entities saw their assets "revised" lower by over $100 billion, and why.
Oh, and it also means that all those headlines about revolving credit having surpassed the financial crisis peak of $1.022 trillion as of July 2008 are now wrong, and the previous record remains safe for at least several more months, because as of today revolving credit has been revised down to $994.5 billion, meaning that US household credit card debt has just been mysteriously revised by $27 billion less.
Which reminds us of what this website first reported one month ago, when we observed that "A Quarter Trillion Dollars In US Savings Was Just "Wiped Away" as $226 billion in personal savings magically disappeared following the latest data revision.
To summarize: in the past two month $262 billion in personal savings "vaporized", and were offset by $102 billion in personal debt which likewise was just "revised" away. To all those trying to keep up with the US economy, and these rather sizable data revisions, good luck.