With inflation in double digits, Congress and the Supreme Court effectively legalized what had been usury, overriding the restrictive state laws. From that time in the early 1980s, consumer credit has exploded, with only slight pauses. Year by year it increased, and not surprisingly, the bankruptcy rate increased with it. In 1998 the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation published an article by one of its analysts showing the close statistical connection between the abolition of usury laws, the large increase in consumer credit, and the dramatic rise in consumer bankruptcies. The result of much higher interest rates has been to make higher default rates acceptable to the credit industry in exchange for a much larger debt base.
Every indication is that the barrage has intensified since then.
As one would expect with such a marketing blitz, the product is selling better every year. Being financially responsible in the face of all that hype is arguably harder than it used to be. To return to the comparison with another American obsession, weight loss, anyone who has gone on a diet has noticed the enormous pressure in our society to eat. Although some people have an incentive to sell us expensive ways to lose weight, far more people are trying their creative best to stuff us full. The better grocery stores and shops are filled with sample tables.