ABCs of USA's Export Machine - Hooking people on Autos, Booze, Cigarettes and Credit

An interesting article in the WSJ....New Indian Middle Class Gets Caught In the Whirlwind of Revolving Credit. According to this article, "...consumerism that has helped drive India's surging economy in recent years is showing its dark side, as overextended Indian credit-card holders get their first taste of delinquency and deep debt....the most visible stress is on the cardholders, and it's showing up in headlines, in call-center employees under crushing debt, even in a new Bollywood movie about middle-class people struggling with credit. Consumer credit, whether cards or car loans, is relatively new to India. Fifteen years ago, even home loans were hard to come by. As regulations on lending were relaxed and India's urban middle class swelled with 20-somethings hungry for the latest cellphone model, credit expanded to meet the need. Banks went too far, analysts say, issuing cards indiscriminately to people in rural areas and lower-income groups without regular salaries. The number of credit cards in India, while still only a fraction of the population, has more than tripled in the past five years, to almost 30 million. In the year ended March 31, Indians charged more than $14 billion on their cards, more than three times the amount charged four years earlier."

As recently as the year 2000 credit cards were very rare and only a few merchants, even in the major urban areas accepted it. During my visit at the time I could not find even one place that would take my credit card.
Fast forward to 2008. Credit defaults.
What a wonderful world.... Louis Armstrong