Credit card living is a natural consequence of the cheap energy binge. As the economic system began to learn that cheap energy allowed you to bring together components from great distances, it also learned to move capital over great distances.

Easy credit is a great way to extend the system by encouraging lots of purchases. In the developing world we call them IMF loans. Here in the US, we call them credit cards and interest only real estate loans.

The internet bubble took it a step further by allowing companies to use the IPO process to bypass the whole loan process entirely.