If the credit market remains frozen, then the banks can't borrow money to cover the $4 you put on your credit card at McDonalds this morning. They have no choice but to get you to pay your debt back faster.

Let's say that issuers raise the minimum payment from about 4% per month to 6% per month. Just two percentage points. But on your $10,000 debt your monthly payment just went from $400 per month to $600 per month.

I know you have $200 lying around at the end of each month you haven't known what to do with, but a lot of us don't.

In order to find that extra $200, you have to do two things: First you have to spend $200 less each month in cash at the grocery store, the gas station, or Starbucks. Second you have to stop charging to your credit cards because every $100 you charge now adds $6 to what you have to pay - every month.

If 100 million families have credit cards, and each of them spends $200 less per month in cash because of the higher minimums, that is $20 billion being kept out of the economy. Every month. Plus whatever people aren't charging any more.

Twenty billion dollars not being spent means businesses can't keep as many people doing whatever they were doing before. That means layoffs. More layoffs means more people unable to pay their debts - credit cards or mortgages. More defaults and foreclosures means an even slower economy leading to a spiral which could result in a 1930's style depression.

I'm not suggesting that will be the result of the Congress not passing the Bail-out/Buy-in Bill, but I wanted to point out that the situation is not limited to keeping Wachovia in business.

It comes down to you and me and our ability to get through the month.