| Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders | 
 enlarge | Manufacturer: Scribner
Category: EBooks
List Price: $17.99
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $8.00 (44%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 40464
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.743
ASIN: B000OI0DYQ
Publication Date: March 9, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Foreclosures are hitting record highs; Americans are declaring bankruptcy at rates ten times that during the great Depression; more college students drop out because of debts than due to poor grades; reports of debtor suicides proliferate in the media. In other words, it's a great time to be in the banking business. Maxed Out takes us on a road trip that is sometimes hysterical and often horrifying: from Las Vegas to the Bible Belt, from the backwoods to inner cities, where the world's largest financial giants troll for their next victims. Welcome to a country populated by debt pirates, corporate predators, human credit card billboards, debt evangelists, megamillion-dollar spec homes, and, of course, trillions of dollars of easy credit. Combining startling facts with even more startling examinations of individuals, institutions, the government, and modern religion, James Scurlock separates the myths (there is "good debt" and "bad debt") from the harsh reality (corporations partner with colleges to target today's youth; credit reports are riddled with errors that will never be fixed; and death, for many of those in trouble, is the only way out). At a time when the financial industry posts ever-higher profits even as its clients drown in the flood of easy credit, Scurlock exposes very real, potentially disastrous systems and policies that are consuming millions of Americans. Maxed Out takes readers on a wickedly smart and entertaining tour of what one interviewee calls "the last taboo."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 A lot to Digest... but it sure helps a person to feel less alone! December 22, 2008
I do recommend this book, although I agree with some of the other reviewers who found it a bit overwhelming. I had to stop reading and let my head stop swimming every now and then.
It's astounding the number of manipulative tactics that credit card companies use to lure people into debt and keep them there, paying huge interest rates and sinking deeper and deeper into the quagmire. Meanwhile, the threat of ruining their credit hangs over their heads like the legendary Sword of Damocles. It ruins lives, and the author does an excellent job of enumerating the many many ways that happens to people.
I'm happy to say that I've also read another book that offers us a more victorious resolution to this problem:
DEFAULT !!! Escaping the Debt Trap and Avoiding Bankruptcy
After reading all the dire warnings and horror stories in "Maxed Out", I was ready to enjoy an entertaining and uplifting book about people who legally defeated a huge credit card company just by doing their homework, learning how to do legal research and conducting their own legal defense.
I highly recommend both books for a complete and balanced perspective on this subject.
 MAXED OUT December 12, 2008
I ORDERED A DVD "MAXED OUT" AND RECEIVED A BOOK "MAXED OUT". I RETURNED IT FOR THE DVD AND WAS TOLD THAT I WOULD GET A REFUND IN ITS PLACE. I WANTED THE DVD! SO FAR I HAVE NOT RECEIVED A REFUND OR THE DVD. NOTHING TO GIVE A REVIEW ABOUT.
NOT HAPPY
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.
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