Credit Cockroaches Are Being Held at Bay — For Now

American consumers are feeling downbeat. Their sentiment is at one of its lowest levels in 73 years, according to the latest University of Michigan survey. A separate question in the same survey shows unemployment-rate expectations for the next year are as bleak as any non-recession period since 1978. Yet for all the gloom, consumer credit is holding up.

“When you look at it, you see really strong credit results,” Wells Fargo & Co. Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf told investors on his earnings call this month. “You see strong consumer spend and stable deposits and those things just kind of paint a picture of a consistently strong consumer, even though what you read about would lead you to believe that they’re being more cautious. Our results just say that there’s a high degree of consistency there without any real pockets of slowing.”