I've had a couple of businesses fail in my life. Nobody bailed me out... wonder if there is retroactive bailout money available...

Setting the whole bail-out thing aside, what I found interesting about this is that the article talks about how American Express makes money by bundling credit card debt and selling it as a security. I find this very interesting because the reason credit card companies are allowed by law to charge a higher rate of interest to their companies as opposed to mortgage lenders or sellers of car loans is that they are supposed to be offering very short term debt.

But what this article seems to imply is that the credit card companies admittedly are in the business of creating long term debt that can be bundled and sold as a security. It seems to give validity to the grievance against the credit card companies that they are in business to get customers to spend more than they can afford to pay back in a given period and carry large balances at a very prohibitive interest rate. Which when challenged is exactly the opposite of what credit card companies claim is their business model.