In this episode we speak with Sean Vanatta who has written "Plastic Capitalism: Banks, Credit Cards, and the End of Financial Control." Vanatta describes how Citibank and South Dakota changed the credit card industry in the United States. An unconnected series of events that involves the US Supreme Court, the Federal Reserve, the South Dakota Legislature and the national demand for credit cards brings together two very different but desperate entities: the state of South Dakota led by Governor Bill Janklow, and Citibank, a large international New York bank led by President Walter Wriston. Their desperate need for one another changed South Dakota's economy as well as consumer credit for millions of Americans. It's all an amazing story of coincidences that's important to part of South Dakota's history. For more, the book can be found here: Plastic Capitalism (yale.edu)
History 605 S4, Ep 6: Citibank and South Dakota
