Maxed Out: Hard Times in the Age of Easy Credit

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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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Surface Scratcher, 2008-05-06
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.





2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

America's credit card culture, 2008-04-27
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.


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Proud Deadbeat and Freeloader..., 2008-03-31
...off of MasterCard :) As I was finishing Maxed Out, I received my statement for my single credit card, which I am proud of having paid of the entire balance over the past six months. What do they do? Tack on a whopping $0.96 cent finance charge! I just have to laugh. As tempting as it is, I finally decided not to mail them 96 pennies accompanied with a snapshot of my hand flipping them the bird. On the few occasions I have no choice but to deal with the teller at my bank, I get a robotic sales pitch for the same $%^# card I already have. More than once I've told this drone, "I already have it; you ask me that every time. I'm paying off the balance and not using it until after that." This book has confirmed what I already suspected: that's exactly what the finance industry does not want to hear. Because lenders are loaning to people who can't afford to pay it back (and they try every way possible to make sure we can't ever do so), our economy is going fast down the sewer, and the repercussions that James Scurlock describes are flat-out frightening. Bankruptcy rates are higher now than during the Depression? WTF? If that isn't a wake-up call to the banking industry to stop preying on people with offers of "easy" credit, then nothing will be. The suicide-riddled stories of how college students fall into this "bear trap" particularly burn me up. I work at a community college, and the credit card vultures periodically set up a table right in the student center. When I pass by, I sometimes have to restrain myself from pulling the 18-year-old freshmen away from it and giving the slimy salesmen a piece of my mind. I'd never really do that, but I fantasize about it. It's a pretty simple concept, college kids: If you don't have a job with a reasonable paycheck, DO NOT get a credit card. End of story. Who cares about the latest gadgets you think you have to have? Grow up and start thinking about your future instead, and debt can very easily wreck it permanently. I think this book should be required reading in freshmen-level college classes, and I very highly recommend it to everyone. It's a splash of ice water in the face about a very serious problem, and it seems the only way to solve it is by collectively telling the banks, corporations, and government "Enough!"


2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Mr. Scurlock please read an economic text., 2008-03-01
I only made it through the first 30 or so pages before I had to quit reading. I was hoping for a look into the economics of the credit industry similar to Conspiracy of Fools. But instead got inundated with anti-bush and anti-corporation rhetoric. Absolutely nothing of substance. The author did not set his narrative on basic or established economic premise, and instead was clearly setting up straw men and scapegoats.


0 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Probably is a good read. , 2008-01-07
A friend (former spouse/father of our grown sons) read the book and felt that it contained valuable information; consequently, I'm rating the book 4 out of 5. we ordered a couple of books for our sons.

I'm looking forward to hearing their review of the book. At some point, their dad and I will "round them up", for a "purposeful dinner" and we will all discuss the book. After our discussion, I'll rerate if warranted.

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