Is there a planetary crisis in consumer credit? Many think so, according to Business Librarian Mike DePue, who researched the issue from his office at the Library Center.

“Consumer indebtedness and easy credit has always been thought of as an American phenomenon,” said DePue, “but there’s evidence to suggest that easy credit is common in other developed countries and is beginning to appear in developing countries.”

DePue’s research shows that foreign banks, often in partnership with American lenders, are using every ploy from giveaways to cold calling to ingrain the buy-now, pay-later concept. In Morocco, consumer financing firms intensify promotional campaigns during Islam’s most important feast by offering a free sheep to each shopper!

“As a result, countries as culturally diverse as Australia and Israel now have bankruptcy levels hitherto unheard of,” said DePue. “Insiders estimate that bankruptcies soar about three to five years after the wide-scale introduction of credit cards. Just as in this country, the most likely fall guys are young couples, serial credit card holders and the recently unemployed.”

A rapidly expanding middle class in India with a voracious appetite for goods and services is stretching credit limits. “People in this economic sector have grown accustomed to regular salary increases fueled by economic growth,” says DePue. “But a substantial and prolonged economic downturn could stress a banking system known for corrupt and lax loan practices and already at the mercy of wild stock market gyrations.”

And then there’s the cultural shock of the modern credit card industry. “In some cultures, the inability to make good on debts causes a loss of face and lives and reputations can be permanently damaged by ill-considered or shortsighted credit decisions,” said DePue. In Andhra Pradesh, an agricultural state in eastern India, during an average summer, seven debt-ridden farmers kill themselves every day, often by drinking pesticides.

For more information on this subject, drop by the Library Center or e-mail DePue at mikedep@thelibrary.org.

Jeanne C. Duffey, community relations director for the Springfield-Greene County Library District, can be reached at jeanned@thelibrary.org.