Amesbury Public Library

Delinquent, inside America's debt machine, Elena Botella

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Delinquent

bibliography

1346096165

Elena Botella

inside America's debt machine

"Delinquent takes readers on a journey from Capital One's headquarters, to street corners in Detroit, to kitchen tables in Sacramento, uncovering the true costs and benefits of consumer credit to American families. In this book, investigative journalist Elena Botella-formerly an industry insider who helped set credit policy at Capital One-uses her unique perspective to reveal 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, and personal stories from interviews with indebted families around the country, Delinquent provides a relatable and humane entry into understanding the issue of 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 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"--, Provided by publisher

The time before the debt machine -- How the machine was built -- The debtor class -- A broken net -- The quickest levers -- Divergent -- A fair deal -- The last frontier -- Transformational lending -- Appendix A : About my research process -- Appendix B : Advice for consumers