We’re in the home stretch of the holiday shopping season. We now have less than nine days until Christmas.
Every shopping center parking lot, truck stop, and shipping depot across America is a madhouse as retailers do everything they can to satisfy the frenzied hordes of rabid consumers descending upon their storefronts and delivery vans.
Those hordes are driven to consume by the expectations of the season (angry in-laws, disappointed spouses, and crying children), relentlessly searching to find the best gifts money can buy. Many of them will be mindlessly piling up charges on their credit cards until the plastic melts, only to end up sobbing and drinking heavily when the bill comes due.
We mostly hear negative stories about debt like our charge-happy friends above, but when used correctly, debt is an effective economic tool that allows us to increase our future productivity and profitability.
Similar to personal finances, there is also good and bad debt at the highest reaches of the economy.
