Credit Check...

Total consumer credit outstanding has increased by 57 percent since 2000. Contained in that is revolving credit debt (ie: credit cards), which has increased 44.5 percent since 2000. Mortgage debt has increased 105 percent since 2000.
Going further back, we can see that total credit has increased 205 percent since 1990. Revolving credit debt has increased 315 percent over the same period of time. Finally, mortgage debt has increased 294 percent since 1990.
There have been articles questioning the effect that consumer credit may have on the economy since 2004. The bubble hasn't burst yet, but it's coming due. But how did we get here? Two rulings helped the credit card companies: 1978's Marquette National Bank v. First of Omaha Corp and 1996's Smiley v. Citibank.
In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled that credit card companies could charge interest rates based on the state laws where the companies were located. The laws where cardholders lived were circumvented. And guess what - the companies that issued the cards moved to Delaware and South Dakota and any other state willing to deregulate interest rates. Then, in 1996, the Supreme Court took it a step further and ruled that credit card companies could charge any fees that were allowable by the state law in which they were headquartered.
These two rulings completely deregulated the credit card industry and, when coupled with more stringent bankruptcy rules (implemented in 2005), are helping to usher in a new era of serfdom. Stay out of the pocket of the credit card companies or surrender as a virtual slave.