In these places, adoption of credit cards was initially much slower. It took until the 1990s to reach anything like the percentage market-penetration levels achieved in the US, Canada, or UK.

[size=10.5pt]Interestingly, the author ascribes the success of Asian economies to their adoption of “seven pillars of Western wisdom”, so he does give some credit to the West.

The international organization of securities regulators should review credit rating agencies' adoption of the standards and mechanisms for monitoring compliance.