Tales of credit card crunch have not been exaggerated

I've been foretelling the coming credit card crunch for as long as the mortgage crunch has been around. It's just obvious: The whole mortgage mess was assisted immensely as consumers rolled their credit cards into their home equity, paying for trips to Vegas and wide screen TVs with the growing equity in their home. Once the refinance was complete, do you think Americans stopped spending, chastened by their larger mortgage payment and the weight of their consumerism on their personal balance sheet? What do you think? I know for a fact that people just don't change like that, and in fact barely escaped falling into the trap myself as my husband was wooed by a mortgage broker with dollar signs in her eyes. (I resisted the siren song of more credit availability, barely.)