Marching at the head of the US consumer army that has spent merrily for the last decade were the Centurions – elite spenders armed with American Express’s most exclusive titanium cards. Unfortunately, like their less wealthy brethren, their steps are starting to falter. Amex has reported weakening spending and credit quality across the board, and is unable to give an accurate forecast on loan losses for the rest of the year.

Consumer credit now appears to be catching up with the deterioration in housing. It had been the case that stretched debtors were prioritising payments on credit cards and cars ahead of their houses – you can walk away from a house, but give up the car and you are walking everywhere. However, credit card delinquencies are now rising: the proportion of US debt payments more than 30 days late was 4.7 per cent in June, up from a low of 3.5 per cent hit at the end of 2005.