Plastic Capitalism: Banks, Credit Cards, and the End of Financial Control

How bankers created the modern consumer credit economy and destroyed financial stability in the process

American households are awash in expensive credit card debt. But where did all this debt come from? In this history of the rise of postwar American finance, Sean H. Vanatta shows how bankers created our credit card economy and, with it, the indebted nation we know today.

America’s consumer debt machine was not inevitable. In the years after World War II, state and federal regulations en...