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Inflation has changed the way many Americans shop. Now, those changes in consumer habits are helping bring down inflation.

Credit card balances soared past a trillion in 2023, reaching a record high in the final months of last year, according to government data. It stands to reason that Americans should eventually cut back to service that mountain of debt, meaning less spending on goods and services — and less revenue for companies to pay their employees. But some economists aren’t alarmed if those debt figures are put into much needed context.

Fed up with prices that remain about 19%, on average, above where they were before the pandemic, consumers are fighting back.

A mass retrenching in consumer spending — the main driver of the U.S. economy — is unlikely this year, according to economists.

"Consumers are more powerful than President Biden," says Claudia Sahm, founder of SAHM Consulting and a former Fed economist.