Secret History Of The Credit Card: Watch The Entire Show Now

Some time back PBS broadcast an excellent TV show, titled “Secret History of The Credit Card” through Frontline. I just found a YouTube version of the entire program and thought about posting them over here. The show (posted below in two parts) runs for almost an hour, so watch it at your own leisure.
Before you start watching the show, here is a small excerpt about it from the PBS Frontline website:

In “Secret History of the Credit Card,” FRONTLINE^® and The New York Times join forces to investigate an industry few Americans fully understand. In this one-hour report, correspondent Lowell Bergman uncovers the techniques used by the industry to earn record profits and get consumers to take on more debt.

“The almost magical convenience of plastic money is critical to our famously compulsive consumer economy,” Bergman says. “With more than 641 million credit cards in circulation and accounting for an estimated $1.5 trillion of consumer spending, the U.S. economy has clearly gone plastic.”

Follow this link for the videos:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/view/

I should acknowledge that, earlier (right after the show was broadcast), a couple of bloggers have linked to Frontline website where the entire show is available divided into 5 parts. However, I don’t think it received “enough” attention at the time. So this post is for those who missed the show on the TV and missed those posts too ; plus it never hurts to give some occasional exposure to important stuff like this.While you are here, make sure you also read a related article on Frontline’s website titled “Eight Things A Credit Card User Should Know“. Bookmark this stuff and remind yourself every once in a while.