With U.S. consumer debt at a new high, a top Government economist last week issued a stern call for credit caution. Raymond J. Saulnier, chairman of the President's economic advisory council, told the nation's bankers not to go "overboard" in increasing consumer installment buying. Said Saulnier at the American Bankers Association's annual convention in Miami: "I hope we do not get involved this year or next in a great splurge of consumer expenditure propelled by credit expansion."
In 1955, said Saulnier, a too rapid expansion of credit caused overbuying of autos and other consumer durables, helped bring on the recession of 1957....