It's reputable enough for me, so I think I'll stop here.

I think Fairmont has a point, though. When you pay cash or write a check, you know you're spending -- and you should when you pay with credit or a debit card, too, but for a lot of people, it feels less like spending. Credit spending, in particular, fools a lot of people because it allows them not to look closely at what a purchase will cost them. I remember maybe ten years ago, I was speaking to a recent college grad with a shiny new credit card and a relatively modest line of credit. She was all happy about her new purchasing power, and was all set to go out and spend a couple thousand dollars furnishing her new apartment. I pointed out that if she did that -- and spent not one cent more using that card -- she would be paying approximately $180 a month for a year to clear that debt. The expenditure wasn't real to her until she thought about that $180 monthly payment. Credit cards, particularly the way they've been marketed, don't encourage people to really think about the consequences of a purchase or to ask themselves if they really need the item.

Fairmont also has the right of it, that the road to prosperity isn't a magic new money pipe into our economy -- it lies instead in reevaluating what "prosperity" means.