I have to give Meridith Whitney her due...

Apparently no one on Wall Street is willing to state the obvious because Meridith is making a big splash today talking about how credit to consumers will contract significantly as they start to enforce credit standards and restore sanity to the consumer lending situation.  (The horror!)

Why this is a surprise to anyone is beyond me.

Relevant quote:

"In other words, we expect available consumer liquidity in the form or credit-card lines to decline by 45 percent."