>What are the implications of the social reality that being broke doesn't
>mean *actually* being broke? I'm not quite sure - I guess we'll continue
>finding out over the next years (btw. has anyone written a history of
>consumer credit from say, 1900 or 1920 to today?)
>Peter
"Money of the Mind", by Doug's politically suspect mate James Grant is quite a good general history, albeit that it's about the easing of credit in general and rather wider than consumer credit.
The removal of the social bankruptcy stigma is beginning to make itself felt by the banks -- a couple of medium-sized US banks who were heavily into the "non-status" credit card market have screwed the pooch on their earnings estimates this year, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. And then there's all that credit-card securitised debt which is hanging around in the money market mutual funds, which are not insured by the FDIC ......
d^2
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