When Bad Things Happen to Your Good Name. Some statistics illuminate consumer attitudes toward financial services and products. A large portion of American households has computers and uses the Internet for a variety of transactions. Neither a borrower nor a lender be. Although this admonition was more common a century ago, Americans still seem to have misgivings about debt.
Credit cards make it too easy to get into debt.
To an increasing extent, data provided by the Federal Reserve on the growth of consumer credit understate the increase in consumers' reliance on credit to finance their assets and expenditures. This is not the fault of the Federal Reserve's statisticians. In the latest issue of Specialty Lender, E. B. Easter reveals the expectations and outcomes of the merger of Household International Inc. and Beneficial Corp. that was announced in April 1998. One person's loss may be another's gain. While many technical workers have been losing their jobs, prosperity has struck any one who is a repo-man.