It's a substantial improvement, and if you graph it over time, it's heading down after decades of going up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Household_Debt_Relati...

That downward trend is the opposite of appalling.

1. Could that be because disposable income is going down?

and

2. Mass paying down of debt may not be the best thing to generate demand during a demand crisis.

> "2. Mass paying down of debt may not be the best thing to generate demand during a demand crisis. "

Yeah, but is it worse than continuing to build up household debt in order to alleviate the pains of a demand crisis?

You're right. Brainfart.

It would be very helpful if the article would mention, 114% of what exactly is the household debt. 114% of annual income, perhaps? Anyway, it looks like we are looking at few more years of decreasing consumption, to get to the year 2000 level of household debt. And even that level is probably too high. So, mostly troubles ahead for US economy, no matter who the next president is going to be.