Part 2 of a conversation with Professor Louis Hyman of Cornell University.

How did consumer debt in the United States move from general acceptance (covered in part 1), into something that is omnipresent? Beyond that, how did it go from something that was an enabler of success in the mid-20th century to something that eroded wealth over people's lifetime?

Debt as we accept it today is a uniquely modern idea and has not always existed this way.