The emphasis of the article was that “even borrowers with stong credit are the pinch”. The part that interested me was this:

Banks are responding to the rise in delinquencies by capping home equity lines of credit in areas with falling real estate prices. A few credit card companies have also moved to reduce the credit limits of customers they deem more risky.

Mortgage Crisis Spreads Past Subprime Loans
VIKAS BAJAJ and LOUISE STORY
Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:06:57 GMT

I am beginning to see more articles talking about the relationship between credit card debt, equity lines of credit, and mortgages. I think the next sign to look for is weakness in the stock price for companies with a large exposure to credit card debt due to increased amounts of debt being written off. This could snowball. With the very high interest rates existing on credit card debt there is no where for the credit card companies to go. I have already seen increased consumer activism to lower credit card rates because other rates have declined. The longer the real estate market declines, the more likely that this financial crisis is going get even uglier.