March 28, 2007

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  NEWS: Credit Cards Out of Control

  Writer and director James Scurlock is committed to exposing the truth about America's unhealthy relationship with plastic. In his documentary-turned-nonfiction book Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders, Scurlock examines the seedy underside of the credit card industry, and how Americans have been suckered into situations beyond their control as part of our collective financial irresponsibility.
  
  Scurlock's claim, though, is that it's not all our fault. He cites the patent greediness of the banking industry as a major factor as well. Once upon a time, he states, bank loans were difficult to get. One had to provide the prospective lender with a great deal of paperwork, including proof of income. Nowadays, banks actively court hoards of Americans with sub-stellar credit to take on loans at exorbitant interest rates that they have no business obtaining in the first place. Why? We have become complacent, he says. Bankruptcy rates are ten times what they were during the Great Depression, yet, barring the recent trouble with the sub-prime mortgage industry, most experts refuse to admit that we are in serious trouble.
  
  Credit card fees have soared almost 1000% in the past ten years – from $1.7 billion in 1996 to $18 billion last year – as lenders rake in cash by giving plastic to those who cannot possibly pay it off. Two-thirds of Americans could not possibly pay off their entire debt each month, says Scurlock. This represents a major idealistic shift from just a generation or two ago, when many Americans were uncomfortable with owning money, and were much more financially conservative.
  
  
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