Recession is ON

In UK's Telegraph article Morgan Stanley issues full US recession alert is this:

In a report "Recession Coming" released today, the bank's US team said the credit crunch had started to inflict serious damage on US companies.

I saw this coming 20 years ago. The credit card companies began handing out credit cards left and right and the advertising became downright aggressive. Impulse buying wasn't reserved for product placement in the stores anymore, now, it was in one's home on the TV. Ronco was one of the pioneers, if not THE pioneer, of selling directly from the TV. All you needed was a credit card and a telephone to call the 800 number to make the purchase.

Television programming was in the act too. There is a Chinese proverb about not showing people what they cannot have. But the credit card companies were determined to snare people in their trap of indentured servitude. So "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" did what it was intended to do. It dazzled people and whetted their appetites enticing them to use this easy-to-get credit card to purchase things they could not get otherwise.

When I thought about how this worked I knew it would eventually reach a point where the whole thing would crash. That I have lived to see it reach that point offers me no end of derisive pleasure.