The death of the credit card economy.  Commentary about business
and finance. Aug. 30 2008 6:39 AM  The Death of the Credit Card
Economy  Car leases, student loans, no-money-down mortgages, and
high credit limits are vanishing.   The Olesons may have
extended store credit to Ma and Pa Ingalls in Little House on
the Prairie, but widespread consumer credit is a very recent
phenomenon. It began in the 1920s, when expensive consumer
durables—cars, refrigerators—were first produced in mass
quantities. It wasn't until Bank of America began carpet-bombing
California with credit-card applications in the 1960s that the
debt wave started in earnest.   In the decades since, consumer
credit became so pervasive that paying cash became passé. Want a
new $32,530 Dodge Ram Crew pickup? Take a lease. Sick of your
old house? Get a 100 percent mortgage and trade up. Face lift?
Round-the-world cruise? New PC? Three-hundred dollar sushi
dinner at Nobu? Whip out that plastic. It was this behavior—the
endless willingness of lenders