ABSTRACT
This chapter documents the rise of easily available consumer credit and the ways we use it. Deregulation of the banking industry and a shift in populations targeted by the banking and credit industry drastically changed the availability and implications of consumer credit in the 1980s and 1990s. The widespread availability of personal credit cards (often at exorbitant interest rates), home equity loans, “no money down” car loans, and leases have changed the landscape of middle class finances. Investors and lenders have profited while the middle class has become trapped in a “work and spend” cycle that shows little hope of abating.
