I get a dozen applications for new credit cards a week, which I rip up. The fact that I receive them, as mass mailings, indicates that the banks sending them do a tidy little business in negative credit card balances.

Plenty of Americans are living on credit, making minimum monthly payments, one or two paychecks away from disaster. I stood in line behind a woman yesterday who paid for her groceries with her credit card -- not debit, mind you, but credit. She will probably be paying interest on Tasty Cakes. As long as you can continue to pay those minimums, you can get ever more credit, and you can remain in hock the rest of your life.

Heck, red has become so fashionable in financial circles that even the White House is wearing it this season!