Credit Cards and the Credit Crisis

October 10th, 2008 by Critical Times Source: Serve the People The current financial crisis had its origins in the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2007, and has seen both a major melt-down or devalorisation of huge amounts of fictitious capital born of speculation, and a loss of liquidity as financial institutions lose confidence in the extension of credit to customers who might be industrial capitalists, merchants, other banks and financial institutions, and the working class. In respect of the latter, some pundits are predicting that the financial crisis will soon move onto forms of personal credit other than residential mortgages and in particular, onto the world of credit cards. Credit is an arrangement whereby the purchase time of a commodity is separated from the payment time. Credit a distinctive creature of capitalism... [read full story]