Title: Convenience or necessity? understanding the recent rise in credit card debt
Description: "Economist disagree whether the recent increase in credit card debt has been detrimental to U.S. houseold.  However, many rely on a measure of revolving credit published by the Federal Reserve, which captures transactions in which a credit card is used because of its advantages over cash or a check.  An increase in debt stemming from such convenience use likely would not signal greater financial vulnerabiltiy for households.  In this paper, I present evidence that some of the significant increase in both the level of credit card debt and it growth from 1992 to 2001 was due to convenience use"--Federal Reserve Board web site.