Resources & Links
- Coping with Debt: Federal Trade CommissionInformation on coping with debt from the Federal Trade Commission.
- Debt.orgDebt.org is America’s Debt Help Organization, serving the public with thorough, accurate and accessible online information about personal finances.
- What Is Debt and How to Handle ItDebt is money owed by one party to another. How best to handle your debt depends on the type of debt you have.
Research & Reference
- Debt: Credo ReferenceA Credo Reference landing page on debt. This page includes links to reference works, journal articles, and a mind map.
- Personal Debt in the United StatesThis dossier provides a statistical insight into personal debt in the United States. It gives an overview of the state of personal debt in the United States, various debt ratios and comparisons of debt levels to disposable income levels, as well as numerous data on family and student debt demographics.
In Debt We Trust
This hard-hitting documentary from Emmy Award-winning producer Danny Schechter explores why so many Americans, young people in particular, are being strangled by consumer debt. Burrowing deep into the politics and economics of American debt culture, Schechter argues that the mall has replaced the factory as America's dominant economic engine, exposes a system operating on borrowed money and borrowed time, and clarifies why so many college students are being forced to pay exorbitant interest on loans while graduating, on average, tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
Source: Kanopy
Perspectives
Paper Promises
Winner of the Spear's Best Business Book Award Longlisted for the 2012 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award For the past forty years western economies have splurged on debt. Now, as the reality dawns that many debts cannot be repaid, we find ourselves again in crisis. But the oncoming defaults have a time-worn place in our economic history. As with the crises in the 1930s and 1970s, governments will fall, currencies will lose their value, and new systems will emerge. Just as Britain set the terms of the international system in the nineteenth century, and America in the twentieth century, a new system will be set by today's creditors in China and the Middle East. In the process, rich will be pitted against poor, young against old, public sector workers against taxpayers and one country against another. In Paper Promises, Economist columnist Philip Coggan helps us to understand the origins of this mess and how it will affect the new global economy by explaining how our attitudes towards debt have changed throughout history, and how they may be about to change again.
House of Debt
The Great American Recession resulted in the loss of eight million jobs between 2007 and 2009. More than four million homes were lost to foreclosures. Is it a coincidence that the United States witnessed a dramatic rise in household debt in the years before the recession?that the total amount of debt for American households doubled between 2000 and 2007 to $14 trillion? Definitely not. Armed with clear and powerful evidence, Atif Mian and Amir Sufi reveal in House of Debt how the Great Recession and Great Depression, as well as the current economic malaise in Europe, were caused by a large run-up in household debt followed by a significantly large drop in household spending. Though the banking crisis captured the public's attention, Mian and Sufi argue strongly with actual data that current policy is too heavily biased toward protecting banks and creditors. Increasing the flow of credit, they show, is disastrously counterproductive when the fundamental problem is too much debt. As their research shows, excessive household debt leads to foreclosures, causing individuals to spend less and save more. Less spending means less demand for goods, followed by declines in production and huge job losses. How do we end such a cycle? With a direct attack on debt, say Mian and Sufi. ?More aggressive debt forgiveness after the crash helps, but as they illustrate, we can be rid of painful bubble-and-bust episodes only if the financial system moves away from its reliance on inflexible debt contracts. As an example, they propose new mortgage contracts that are built on the principle of risk-sharing, a concept that would have prevented the housing bubble from emerging in the first place. Thoroughly grounded in compelling economic evidence, House of Debt offers convincing answers to some of the most important questions facing the modern economy today: Why do severe recessions happen? Could we have prevented the Great Recession and its consequences? And what actions are needed to prevent such crises going forward?
American Household Debt Has Surpassed 2008 Levels
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