Image via WikipediaThis is a really bad sign for the economy. American Express has just become a bank. Credit Cards are officially a problem.
They're doing this so they can access the Federal Reserves cheap credit windows, otherwise, they would have no liquidity and be in trouble. By the way, moves like this have made the Federal Reserves balance sheet grow from $900B in August to $2Trillion as of last week. That is truly mind boggling! (source: Bill Fleckenstein)