A crisis of credit: Jimmy Carter, Citibank, and the political economy of consumer credit, 1958-1985

This thesis traces two overlapping narratives: First, it examines the geographic transformations of consumer credit created by banks mass mailing of credit cards in the years following World War II. In this period, mass mailing moved consumer credit from a series of community-based, personal relationships, largely regulated by states, to more institutional, impersonal, and distant relationships unencumbered by community control. Accompanying this transformation, and comprising the second narrative thread, was an increasing societal and regulatory scrutiny of credit-card marketing and use, culminating in The Credit Control Act of 1969 (CCA), a bill separately enacted and implemented in response to significant mass-mailing campaigns. In March 1980, President Jimmy Carter used the CCA to curtail the use of credit cards, an action praised by indebted citizens but crippling to the larger economy. By linking these narratives, this thesis demonstrates the centrality of consumer credit to Reagans election and the subsequent neoliberal turn.