Credit Cards and Spendthrifts

MasterCard's Bob Selander tells TIME's Jyoti Thottam about the rise of debit, recession in the U.S. and the world's big spenders

Sheri Manson for TIME

MasterCard CEO Robert Selander

What's happening on the consumer side? We have, obviously, some credit issues.

We've seen the U.S. consumers' rate of spending--the year-over-year growth rate--slowing down throughout the year. Think also about energy prices--we've gone through $3 a gallon. But I'm optimistic that we won't see recession, that we'll manage through this.

What's the breakdown between U.S. vs. global as far as revenue for MasterCard?

In terms of the volume of business done on our cards, it's about 55% outside the U.S. and about 45% within the U.S. In terms of our revenue, it's almost fifty-fifty. We're just at the point where the...

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