OK, somebody bring me up to speed here. Are we supposed to hate credit cards, or love them?

Are the credit-card companies just evil incarnations of Mr. Potter in Frank Capra’s classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” looking for ways to rule the world and control us through fees, or are we the ones to blame, because we never listened to parents and grandparents who made it through the Depression and never complained?

Or are credit cards the key to a happy shopping season that, if we’d all just holster them in our wallets, would finally blast away the stagnant inversion of this recession?

It’s a bit confusing right now, frankly.

You can read this by Jay Evensen.