U.S. households took on an additional $8 trillion in debt over the past decade as the housing boom drove home owners to get cash out of their equity through refinancing or equity home loans, according to a recent article in Reuters.  This, in turn, made consumers less interested in saving their money as the chart below shows.

Now overwhelmed with debt, these poor choices made by consumers has resulted in a steep rise of credit card payment defaults as the next shoe is about to drop with a thud on …