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> >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?)
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> >Peter
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> "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.
Its out of print, but looks interesting (although I wish someone with a Marxist background would write a book on this subject). Doug, are you covering credit in 'The New Economy'?
Why is Grant politically suspect?
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> 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 ......
Credit consolidation seems to be a big thing in the UK - my union (the MSF), kept advertising credit consolidation deals for union members. :( In South Africa, while consumer credit is certainly growing, the most meteoric growth seems to have been in loan-sharks (usury rules are relaxed for amounts below R 6000 - there was talk of moving that limit up to R 50 000) - there are now more shops selling money in South Africa than there are selling food.
Peter -- Peter van Heusden <pvh at egenetics.com> NOTE: I do not speak for my employer, Electric Genetics "Criticism has torn up the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man shall wear the unadorned, bleak chain but so that he will shake off the chain and pluck the living flower." - Karl Marx, 1844