But that was not the full story. In the ensuing months they fell back, bit by bit. Or, rather, we should say one by one. By the end of the year, they all had accumulated as much debt as those whose debt we had left alone. So while the standard explanations are not supported by the data—the vendors do not fall back right away—neither is the view that those in a scarcity trap just need a one-time infusion to rid them of the debt.
