By Terry Connelly

In the hours following the February 20 release of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee January 2013 meeting, US equity markets dropped over one percent reversing a steady upward climb that had persisted since the swerve around the "Fiscal Cliff" at the start of the year (except for a brief flutter down in early January when the minutes of their previous meeting in December were released).

What is it about Fed minutes that give “commentators” (many of whom are notorious short sellers) ammunition to talk down the markets so they can shake stocks out of weak hands and then buy them cheaper? In this case, it was the “revelation” that there were voices on the Fed that had doubts about the cost-benefits of the Quantitative Easing program of $85 billion per month government debt and mortgage bond purchases that the Central Bank has undertaken to stimulate extension of cheap credit to businesses and householders and thereby encourage hiring.

Given that the Fed’s QE

In a sign that American consumers' restraint may be easing, household debt rose at the end of last year after four years of declines.

In the fourth quarter of 2012, outstanding consumer debt rose 0.3% -- or $31 billion -- from the previous quarter to total $11.34 trillion, according to the latest report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Total debt, though, is still considerably lower than its peak of $12.68 trillion in the third quarter of 2008, at the beginning of the financial crisis.

Mortgage debt, by far the largest component of household debt, was about flat in the fourth quarter at $8.6 trillion. Non-housing debt is where the increase came, particularly student loans, which increased $10 billion from the previous quarter to $966 billion. In fact, student debt was the only type of consumer borrowing that continued to rise through the Great Recession and now has the second-largest balance after mortgage debt.

“The data provides early evidence that consumers may be reaching