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Up to Our Eyeballs: The Hidden Truths and Consequences of Debt in Today's America
At a time when Americans owe close to $800 billion in credit card debt, the myth is that credit cards are primarily financing America's luxury lifestyles―helping white suburban families pay the costs attached to extravagant homes, luxury cars, and golf club memberships―or helping those who aspire to these lifestyles. Up to Our Eyeballs reveals the disturbing reality that credit cards are in fact the new "safety net," being used by desperate middle- and low-income families to manage essential expenses.
In the increasingly volatile American economy, where a decline in work-related benefits like health insurance and pensions has accompanied a rising cost of living and increased job instability, consumer debt has become a fact of life for many American families. Up to Our Eyeballs is a troubling examination of the causes and consequences of this explosive rise in consumer debt.
Including a critical look at how the financial industry became the aggressive, hyper-profitable industry it is today, this book also incorporates solutions that will be of real relief to struggling households.
In the increasingly volatile American economy, where a decline in work-related benefits like health insurance and pensions has accompanied a rising cost of living and increased job instability, consumer debt has become a fact of life for many American families. Up to Our Eyeballs is a troubling examination of the causes and consequences of this explosive rise in consumer debt.
Including a critical look at how the financial industry became the aggressive, hyper-profitable industry it is today, this book also incorporates solutions that will be of real relief to struggling households.
223 pages, Hardcover
First published March 11, 2008
About the author
James Lardner
16 books1 followerJames Lardner has written extensively about business, technology, the financial sector, and the role of regulation. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and The New York Review of Books, among other print and online publications. He was a senior fellow at Demos, a center for public policy based in New York City and a staff writer for the journal Remapping Debate, sponsored by the Anti-Discrimination Center. He was a member of the Washington, D.C., police force.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 7, 2018
#depressing
May 18, 2009
Batchelder et al. set out to discover and discuss why Americans have become so in-debted to their lenders. They find the causes for severe debt and bankruptcy in higher costs of living coupled with random bad luck: we get catastrophically sick, we get fired, we get divorced. When faced with potentially disabling emergencies, many of us do not have sufficient reserves to absorb or cushion the blow. In desperate need of cash we allow ourselves to become victims of predatory lending practices. High interest rates, confusing lending agreements, and exotic loans -- once the tools of only shady moneylenders and hucksters -- have been adopted and even improved on by mainstream banks which are no longer regulated as tightly as they had been in the first half of the 20th century. The result? Americans as a whole spend more than they save ... and we're not buying luxuries, we're buying credit.
The solution? Legislation. "Policies that point us, on the one hand, toward dramatically higher standards of behavior for the lending industry, and, on the other hand, toward more broadly shared prosperity, with mechanisms of economic opportunity and security that reduce the pressure on Americans to borrow for important life needs." Batchelder and her co-writers offer no advice for their readers other than to become politically active and demand Congress to clean up the mess: lenders must cast their terms in clear, simple prose; regulatory bodies should be beefed up or created to stamp out abusive lending; the US needs a comprehensive savings and asset-building policy that would reward low- and middle-income citizens for saving; low-income earners need a fair source for obtaining reasonable loans; student grants should be increased and loans decreased; unions should be better supported; and the government should do as good a job of bailing out its financially strapped citizens as it has done in bailing out its bankrupt lenders.
The book's tone alternates between smug and strident, and it's argument is often one-sided and even manipulative: we meet a couple dozen people who have been abused by their lenders, and we come to sympathize with them; but most lenders are simply large, faceless institutions who are not given a voice to explain how they assess risk or why they charge the rates they do. If you enjoy 60 Minutes style reporting, often more accusatory than investigative, you might like this book. At other times it's consoling, arguing that we are all victims of forces far beyond our control. In some ways it's a sort of Chicken Soup for Folks who Signed on the Bottom Line without Reading the Small Print (or doing the math). But if you're looking for ideas on how to avoid falling into debt or how to dig out if you're already buried by it, you'd do better to find another book. As far as the authors are concerned we are all simply victims of The Man & the Suits, and only Uncle Sam, holding lenders on a tight leash and liberally doling out relief to the rest of us, can solve America's debt crisis.
The solution? Legislation. "Policies that point us, on the one hand, toward dramatically higher standards of behavior for the lending industry, and, on the other hand, toward more broadly shared prosperity, with mechanisms of economic opportunity and security that reduce the pressure on Americans to borrow for important life needs." Batchelder and her co-writers offer no advice for their readers other than to become politically active and demand Congress to clean up the mess: lenders must cast their terms in clear, simple prose; regulatory bodies should be beefed up or created to stamp out abusive lending; the US needs a comprehensive savings and asset-building policy that would reward low- and middle-income citizens for saving; low-income earners need a fair source for obtaining reasonable loans; student grants should be increased and loans decreased; unions should be better supported; and the government should do as good a job of bailing out its financially strapped citizens as it has done in bailing out its bankrupt lenders.
The book's tone alternates between smug and strident, and it's argument is often one-sided and even manipulative: we meet a couple dozen people who have been abused by their lenders, and we come to sympathize with them; but most lenders are simply large, faceless institutions who are not given a voice to explain how they assess risk or why they charge the rates they do. If you enjoy 60 Minutes style reporting, often more accusatory than investigative, you might like this book. At other times it's consoling, arguing that we are all victims of forces far beyond our control. In some ways it's a sort of Chicken Soup for Folks who Signed on the Bottom Line without Reading the Small Print (or doing the math). But if you're looking for ideas on how to avoid falling into debt or how to dig out if you're already buried by it, you'd do better to find another book. As far as the authors are concerned we are all simply victims of The Man & the Suits, and only Uncle Sam, holding lenders on a tight leash and liberally doling out relief to the rest of us, can solve America's debt crisis.
August 1, 2008
A fairly quick read from several writers involved with Demos, a non-partisan public policy research organization.
The book provides a succinct but enlightening account of the reasons Americans across the board, especially the poor and young, are drowning in debt - a significant change from just a generation ago. The simple answer, according to the authors, is that banking deregulation allowed financial institutions to create products that set-up the consumer for failure and then to profit off that failure. This, despite initial promises from the industry that the increased competition generated by deregulation would benefit the consumer. It seems clear to this reader that such promised effects were exaggerated or patently false.
In truth, the authors posit, deregulation has allowed shady lending practices to become standard operating procedure across all financial institutions. America's consumer debt issue, then, is not a failure of individual self-restraint, but rather a national disgrace.
I'm sure this is one side to a complex issue but the short volume is at least comprehensive touching upon the issues of credit cards, student loans, sub-prime mortgages, and credit scoring. I was very interested in the history of regulation and deregulation in all of these industries. Definitely worth reading.
The book provides a succinct but enlightening account of the reasons Americans across the board, especially the poor and young, are drowning in debt - a significant change from just a generation ago. The simple answer, according to the authors, is that banking deregulation allowed financial institutions to create products that set-up the consumer for failure and then to profit off that failure. This, despite initial promises from the industry that the increased competition generated by deregulation would benefit the consumer. It seems clear to this reader that such promised effects were exaggerated or patently false.
In truth, the authors posit, deregulation has allowed shady lending practices to become standard operating procedure across all financial institutions. America's consumer debt issue, then, is not a failure of individual self-restraint, but rather a national disgrace.
I'm sure this is one side to a complex issue but the short volume is at least comprehensive touching upon the issues of credit cards, student loans, sub-prime mortgages, and credit scoring. I was very interested in the history of regulation and deregulation in all of these industries. Definitely worth reading.
September 11, 2008
A fairly quick read from several writers involved with Demos, a non-partisan public policy research organization.
The book provides a succinct but enlightening account of the reasons Americans across the board, especially the poor and young, are drowning in debt - a significant change from just a generation ago. The simple answer, according to the authors, is that banking deregulation allowed financial institutions to create products that set-up the consumer for failure and then to profit off that failure. This, despite initial promises from the industry that the increased competition generated by deregulation would benefit the consumer. It seems clear to this reader that such promised effects were exaggerated or patently false.
In truth, the authors posit, deregulation has allowed shady lending practices to become standard operating procedure across all financial institutions. America's consumer debt issue, then, is not a failure of individual self-restraint, but rather a national disgrace.
I'm sure this is one side to a complex issue but the short volume is at least comprehensive touching upon the issues of credit cards, student loans, sub-prime mortgages, and credit scoring. I was very interested in the history of regulation and deregulation in all of these industries. Definitely worth reading.
The book provides a succinct but enlightening account of the reasons Americans across the board, especially the poor and young, are drowning in debt - a significant change from just a generation ago. The simple answer, according to the authors, is that banking deregulation allowed financial institutions to create products that set-up the consumer for failure and then to profit off that failure. This, despite initial promises from the industry that the increased competition generated by deregulation would benefit the consumer. It seems clear to this reader that such promised effects were exaggerated or patently false.
In truth, the authors posit, deregulation has allowed shady lending practices to become standard operating procedure across all financial institutions. America's consumer debt issue, then, is not a failure of individual self-restraint, but rather a national disgrace.
I'm sure this is one side to a complex issue but the short volume is at least comprehensive touching upon the issues of credit cards, student loans, sub-prime mortgages, and credit scoring. I was very interested in the history of regulation and deregulation in all of these industries. Definitely worth reading.
January 26, 2009
This is a must read for anyone who wants to learn how credit has taken over our lives. Covers all forms of credit and the influences where credit comes.
Couple take aways from this are 1) there is a huge credit bubble created during the last 10 to 20 years that has gotten so big that it can't grow anymore, 2) credit with interest robs people of their money and work.
I wish there would have been more discussion on the effect of interest and how our monetary system is built on money which is credit. And that there isn't any money created to pay interest. Thus, Where's the Interest?
Couple take aways from this are 1) there is a huge credit bubble created during the last 10 to 20 years that has gotten so big that it can't grow anymore, 2) credit with interest robs people of their money and work.
I wish there would have been more discussion on the effect of interest and how our monetary system is built on money which is credit. And that there isn't any money created to pay interest. Thus, Where's the Interest?
July 9, 2008
I love books about current events and issues. I found this at the library and really enjoyed it. If you saw the documentary "Maxed Out" and enjoyed it then you will also love this book. If you haven't seen "Maxed Out" rent it tonight! I wish the authors had included more practical action steps to take, but overall the book was well written. Of particular note are the chapters on student loan debt, subprime mortgages, and insurance were all excellent.
September 15, 2012
Great simple look at why so many people got into the crazy mess that they are no so willing to blame everyone else for. A neutral perspective can be gained from reading this.
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October 3, 2012Just starting this book. will let you know when I am done.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews