Recent earnings numbers put out by credit card companies are quickly confirming what many analysts have already seen coming: American consumers are quickly finding themselves in a pile of debt that may be extremely difficult to escape. Subprime mortgage defaults combined with a consumer credit crunch have led to a substantial increase in defaults. Capital One is the first such credit card issuer to report the decline in credit quality as it raised its loan loss reserves. It appears as if credit card companies may have been just as careless when loaning to individuals as the mortgage sector.

From MarketWatch:
Credit-card shares were among the top decliners in the financial sector Thursday after Capital One Financial Corp. lowered its earnings outlook and raised its loan loss reserves, with increasing clarity that the credit crisis sparked by careless home lending has spread to the consumer sector.