>Assumming Spain is a fair example, the attittude towards consumer
>debt in Europe
>has nothing to do with what one finds here. Even now, in the midst of an
>unprecedented credit boom, credit card debt is unheard of - most
>people are not
>even aware that you can borrow money from a credit card, and regard them as no
>more than shopping conveniences. If you want to borrow money from a
>credit card,
>you have to personally ask your banker not to pay your full balance
>every month
>- and you won't be getting any new credit after you do that. Home equity lines
>are still called "second mortgages" and are another sign the
>borrower is in deep
>shit and needs to be cut off.
>
>The banking system also operates differently. All large loans are usually
>divided up by the banks according to market share. Also, the rising
>stars in the
>banking system aren't those who make the most 'sales', but rather
>the least dumb
>children of the old moneyed families. This means that there's very little
>pressure to throw as much money at people as possible, and it's very hard to
>borrow money for anything other than buying a home or starting/expanding a
>business.
The consumer credit market isn't very developed in Japan either, with the exception of so-called sarakin, which charges usurious interest rates. I heard it somewhere that consumer credit (excluding mortgages) makes up only 3 percent of bank lending in Japan.
Yoshie