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| Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders | 
 enlarge | Author: James D. Scurlock
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $3.00
You Save: $21.00 (88%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 433033
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 141653251X
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.743
EAN: 9781416532514
ASIN: 141653251X
Publication Date: March 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In this shocking and illuminating road trip through an America ravaged by debt, award-winning film director James Scurlock examines our multitrillion-dollar addiction to easy credit in all of its absurdities and contradictions.Maxed Out ventures beyond the mind-numbing statistics to expose a financial industry spinning wildly out of control. From the gilded master-planned communities of Northern Las Vegas to the shotgun shacks of the Deep South, the world's largest financial institutions are trolling for customers, hooking the nouveau riche and the poor alike with promises of cheap and easy credit. Maxed Out exposes how Wall Street and Congress spawned the subprime mortgage crisis and reveals how credit card issuers form multimillion-dollar partnerships with universities -- paying them millions for access to their students' personal information, setting kids up for financial ruin before their first job. The industry's final frontier, "debt buying," is a veritable Wild West in which ambitious young men make quick fortunes off the misery and misfortune of others. Hilarious, fascinating, and deeply disturbing, Maxed Out is one man's answer to modern America's most pressing question, "Why can't we get out of debt?"
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| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
 Pretty upsetting - in a good way. November 10, 2008
((After watching this, I finally sat down and organized a budget for paying off my credit cards and I'm sticking to it very strictly!)) While the personal, anecdotal evidence causes minor weaknesses in the arguments made in this film, there is enough compelling evidence to make it quite interesting, upsetting, insightful, etc. and it was particularly intriguing to see for my first time during the economy crisis being such a decisive factor for people in the 2008 presidential election.
 Our credit-hungry society may be leading us to ruin October 12, 2008
The book ''Maxed Out'' was certainly a timely warning bell about the financial crisis that is now swamping the financial markets. But even if anyone was listening when the book was released - it's too late to change what has happened. Nonetheless it's interesting to read about the building debt crisis as it was unfolding over the last several years through the anecdotal evidence presented in the book.
Author James Scurlock surveys the whole credit, lending, and spending splurge in the U.S. and concludes that big banks, unsavory lenders, and gullible buyers created a perfect storm of debt that would one day come due. Through various stories from individuals the reader sees how lending institutions tempting people into taking high-risk loans without thinking through the consequences. And for the most part the government did not do enough to stop it.
The author tends to be sarcastic and witty, which at times makes the reading fun but eventually got to be too much for me. And while I agree with his disgust of the unsavory lending practices, he pretty much gives the individuals seeking the quick credit a free pass on their poor choices. In that respect I did not agree with the author since individuals ultimately have to be held accountable for their own choices. No one is forcing them to buy an expensive car on a meager salary!
My understanding is that the book version is a shortened edition of author James Scurlock's short film on the topic. That may explain the book's scattershot approach and meandering text. Scurlock tends to mix together stories of debt horrors with his personal views, political events, and little lessons about overextending on debt. This sometimes created tedious and/or circuitous reading. I recommend the book if reading first-hand accounts of credit horror stories interests you, but don't expect too many hard and fast facts to back up the author's opinions.
Provocative but incomplete October 1, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
James Spurlock is prophetic as well as provocative: his book was written (and his documentary made) back in 2005, when it seemed that the real estate market could do nothing but continue its spectacular rise, yet he preached caution about the unsustainability of real estate speculation. He blew the whistle on mortgage brokers' predatory practices long before "sub-prime lending" became a household phrase. And he closed his book by advocating sweeping reform measures to regulate the credit card industry, which is shored up by egregious fees that target the most vulnerable consumers. Several those ideas have since been considered by a Congress desperate to avoid Scurlock's predicted recession.
But the book is a mixed bag, mostly because Spurlock is so eager to place the blame on profit-driven corporations and the government with whom they share a king-sized bed that he repeatedly patronizes the little guy as a mere victim. Everyday Americans, indeed, are feeling the squeeze of being the most indebted of any generation in our history, but Scurlock would have us believe it is entirely the fault of others. It's the fault of the debt collectors, who are profiled in a frightening and sad chapter on how debt is sold and resold again. It's the fault of mortgage lenders, who have extended loans to people who never should have qualified for them. And it's the fault of credit card companies for cracking down on debtors with draconian provisos like the "universal default" fee.
Yes. I see all of that, and I think Scurlock raises important points about corporate responsibility and the government's role in protecting consumers as well as big business. But Scurlock wants us to believe that every one of the people he profiles in the book is merely a victim, even the woman who charged her Cadillac and a [...] job to the U.S. government. He holds her up as a casualty of the military's policy of expediting purchase orders by issuing credit cards to Marines. He seems to think that someone was holding a gun to her head, forcing her to charge her bar tabs and Rent-A-Center furnishings to the American people.
I agree wholeheartedly with Scurlock's condemnation of our culture of debt, such as when he points out that while cigarettes can't be advertised on TV and must come with severe warnings on the label, the credit industry--which is selling a product that, when abused, can also be damaging to one's future and well-being--has been helped every step of the way by Washington. But on the other hand, Americans need to accept their share of financial responsibility. A key proponent of debt prevention is rigorous consumer education, both at home and at school. This is something Scurlock just doesn't discuss: how parents need to teach their children about debt, credit, and money management from an early age; and how schools need to educate kids about these issues before they get into college and start getting flooded with credit card offers that seem to good to be true--and are.
Surface Scratcher May 6, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
In a snappy 250 pages, Maxed Out offers a pleasant and informative survey into several aspects of the modern (U.S.) financial services industry, as seen through the eyes of its various predators and prey. Written in the style of a "Fast Food Nation" (i.e., related through personal interviews and anecdotal cases representative of larger trends), Maxed Out is an informative, enjoyable read on a topic of immeasurable importance.
On the down-side, Maxed Out misses some key aspects of the modern credit "bear trap" (as he calls it), such as payday lending and "sale-leaseback" scams. Statistics and other details that could add perspective to the problem are missing in action. And Scurlock devotes a bit too much ink to indignant rants against injustice rather than exposing his compelling evidence -- a flaw novice writers are instructed to avoid by the phrase "show, don't tell."
In fairness, Maxed Out the book appears somewhat of an afterthought to Maxed Out the documentary film, and evidently Scurlock never intended to be thorough or textually polished. Very Michael Moore in that way, so dig this like Roger & Me.
 America's credit card culture April 27, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The problem, as writer and filmmaker Scurlock brings out in his book (and companion documentary film), is that Americans are living on borrowed funds and we'll all be in trouble when the bill comes in. The fact that the government kowtows to big corportions like Citigroup and Bank of America should be enough to anger most Americans. The simple fact that America is the only nation in the civilized Western world where you can declare bankruptcy due to medical bills should outrage any sane individual. At some point, Scurlock argues, this credit-built house of cards will fall down and take everyone with it.
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