Delinquent : Inside America's Debt Machine.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Botella, Elena.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Banks and banking--United States.

Banks and banking.

Consumer credit--United States--History.

Consumer credit.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (342 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Delinquent

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 2022.

Summary:

A consumer credit industry insider-turned-outsider explains how banks lure Americans deep into debt, and how to break the cycle. Delinquent takes readers on a journey from Capital One's headquarters to street corners in Detroit, kitchen tables in Sacramento, and other places where debt affects people's everyday lives. Uncovering the true costs of consumer credit to American families in addition to the benefits, investigative journalist Elena Botella--formerly an industry insider who helped set credit policy at Capital One--reveals the underhanded and often predatory ways that banks induce American borrowers into debt they can't pay back. Combining Botella's insights from the banking industry, quantitative data, and research findings as well as personal stories from interviews with indebted families around the country, Delinquent provides a relatable and humane entry into understanding debt. Botella exposes the ways that bank marketing, product design, and customer management strategies exploit our common weaknesses and fantasies in how we think about money, and she also demonstrates why competition between banks has failed to make life better for Americans in debt. Delinquent asks: How can we make credit available to those who need it, responsibly and without causing harm? Looking to the future, Botella presents a thorough and incisive plan for reckoning with and reforming the industry.

Contents:

Intro

Title

Copyright

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

A Note

Part I: The Principal Argument

1. The Time before the Debt Machine

2. How the Machine Was Built

3. The Debtor Class

4. A Broken Net

5. The Quickest Levers

Part II: The Principal Argument

6. Divergent

7. A Fair Deal

Part III: The Future

8. The Last Frontier

9. Transformational Lending

Acknowledgments

Appendix A: About My Research Process

Appendix B: Advice for Consumers

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780520380363

0520380363

OCLC:

1321799793