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Is Credit Card Debt the Next Financial Disaster?

With the economic downturn, rising unemployment, decline in house prices, and limited ability for consumers to continue using their homes as an ATM; credit card debt is poised to be the next disaster in the financial sector with bearish outlooks for credit lenders Capital One (COF), Discover (DFS), and American Express (AXP). Credit card processors such as Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA) have also declined with the overall market, but are leveraged to the volume of transactions with debit and credit cards rather than

Currently the price of Master Card has been declining due to impact of other financial sector shares, however if your review the charts of the last 3 Quarters with every results report the price of the stock has climbed at least 20 dollars (2Q´s behind).

I love plastic.  I love the convenience, I love the loyality points, I love the security, and I love paying off the balance so it doesn't cost me anything.  People forget that MA is not exposed to credit risk; they have a transaction-based model.  These guys have a huge market share, the world is moving away from cash, and if you're smart and you're getting rewards from your card and paying off the balance, it's actually cheaper to use plastic than cash. . .it's other people's money for up to 60 days!  For people who have less restraint, credit cards offer a way to buy stuff you can't quit

Filed under: Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Time Warner (TWX), Wal-Mart (WMT), Amazon.com (AMZN), General Motors (GM), Target Corp. (TGT), Money and Finance Today, American Express (AXP), Best Buy (BBY), MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Costco Wholesale (COST), Monster Worldwide (MNST)

Filed under: MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Economic data, Financial Crisis

MasterCard (NYSE:MA) runs one of the best retail tracking systems in the country. That makes sense given how many transactions involve its cards.

Numbers from its data collection system verify that retail sales are bad, but the latest numbers show how bad. According to Reuters, "Overall apparel sales are down 19 percent from the same period a year ago, according to a report by SpendingPulse," Appliance sales dropped 22% about the same amount as purchases of luxury goods.

A week ago, the America's Research Group said it expec

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