The British are taking a little different approach. The government there is on the verge of punishing credit card companies, telling them they need to allow borrowers to delay payment or reduce interest rates, otherwise they may be investigated, fined or have their licenses revoked.

But of course, credit card companies are charging high interest rates in part because it is riskier than usual to lend money in the current economy.

That is a logical market response. Here is another: Bad financial behavior will eventually be punished, often harshly. The market doesn't monkey around with heart-to-heart talks or group sessions to deal with personal issues. If you borrow more than you can afford, there will be a day of reckoning. And if the government insists on finding ways to delay that day, it will succeed only in spreading the misery.

During better times, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan once lauded the borrowing by low-income Americans as a sign of progress. Once, only the affluent could get credit. In the modern world, credit had been democratized.

But just because the poor can eat as well as the rich doesn't mean that gluttony has suddenly become a healthy thing.

I prefer Benjamin Franklin's policy, which was, "Better to go to bed supperless, than to wake up in debt."

As for that chicken-and-egg question, make mine scrambled.

Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret News edito?rial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com. Visit his blog at www.deseretnews.com/blogs.