In Debt We Trust

Just a few decades ago, owing more money than you had in your bank account was the exception, not the rule. Yet, in the last 10 years, consumer debt has doubled and, for the first time, Americans are spending more than they’re saving — or making. This April, award-winning former ABC News and CNN producer Danny Schechter investigates America’s mounting debt crisis in his latest hard-hitting expose, IN DEBT WE TRUST.While many Americans are “maxing out” on credit cards, there is a much deeper story: power is shifting into fewer hands…with frightening consequences. IN DEBT WE TRUST reveals a hitherto unknown cabal of credit card companies, lobbyists, media conglomerates and the Bush administration itself, which has colluded to deregulate the lending industry, ensuring that a culture of credit dependency can flourish.

In the film, Schechter exposes the mechanisms and machinations behind the hidden financial and political complex that allows even the lowest wage earners to indebt themselves so heavily that house repossessions have become commonplace. One expert in the film goes so far as to dub this “21st-century serfdom.”

Inspired by scholar Robert Manning - one of the films’ key advisers’ - and his seminal book “Credit Card Nation”, IN DEBT WE TRUST showcases his insights about the impact of debt on young people and our society. It also suggests the kinds of practical efforts needed to empower the public with information to avoid the traps of debt dependency.

The whole world depends on the economic stability of the United States. Yet, as its national and consumer debt escalates, our interconnected global economy is at incredible risk. IN DEBT WE TRUST, as timely and relevant as a film can be, delivers an urgent warning that can’t be ignored.

Summary: awesome docu and the music is great!
Rating: 5

This docu is as informative as it is depressing but needs to be watched by EVERYONE. You should buy this just for the “indie” debt songs sprinkled throught. I love it! Now off to spend w/ my credit card :)

Summary: A Must for Young Adults!
Rating: 5

This is clearly a great flick that lets the viewer ’see’ how the banks view you the credit consumer. It really goes into accurate detail on how the finance industry is trying to snare consumers from and young age and create a generation of debt slaves. They also have a chilling prediction on where all this ‘debt’ is heading. I highly recommend this flick.

Summary: In Debt We Trust
Rating: 4

Very enlighteniing on the development of the debt problems we all face especially how we have gotten there with many ideas as to how to decrease our debts and change our purchasing patterns.All families and individuals should view this, an eye opener.

Summary: Great DVD
Rating: 5

This should be shown in all high schools and all colleges. Parents should have to show this to their children (and some should watch themselves.

Summary: A problem for all of us…
Rating: 4

About 2/3 through this film, the director, Danny Schecter, talks about the predatory and devestating effects of the “subprime” lending formula. As that has become an issue of late, you might see the film as a prophecy, and a sign the the bubble is, indeed, bursting.

I feel compelled to point out that a few 1-star reviewers saw this DVD as an indictment of Bush. Those people either didn’t see it or had such a pro-Bush bias that they didn’t hear Schecter and those he interviewed repeatedly saying that it pervades both parties!

And another important reflection: the standard line when credit issues come up is something those of us allegedly on “the left” ignore, i.e., individual responsibility. Did you really have to buy that flat screen TV? I won’t deny that, but nor will I deny that the very basis of our whole economic culture is CONSUMPTION. That stuff is shoved down our throats all the time. Indeed, if people would refrain from that sort of consumption, the US economy would fall apart in a week. So there are two sides to that as well. In fact, there is a portion of the film which describes stores in the “low income neighborhoods of color” in NYC which have “rent to own” shops where people will end up paying $750 for a television they could get for $195 at a mall. What’s more, it doesn’t do us much good to ignore individual responsibility, but why not acknowledge the responsibility of those pressing and making the loans–off of which they’re making obscene profits–too! or are they responsible for nothing?

The film begins with a Baptist congregation in Norfolk, VA where the congregation helps out members who’ve gone bankrupt. They bail out that person and decry being in debt. The story continues in chapters, based on who’s going bankrupt (including actress Lorraine Bracco of “The Sopranos.” What? A movie star can go broke??) and why.

It covers the predatory companies. Ironic, I just saw it ten minutes ago and am still processing the whole concept. I guess I relate to it as I’ve been saying the same thing for a long time. When I went overseas as a professional 30 years ago, my boss did not qualify for a credit card (so, needless to say, nor did I). I was in my 30s when I got my first credit card. When I moved to the area where I live now and got a job at the national HQ of an association, a colleague of mine joked that his high school son got junk mail for credit cards daily. That’s how “easy” it was/is to get credit. The film too discusses with young people the debt they’ve incurred because of such cards. (One young woman had spent the last nine years paying off half her $16,000 in credit card bills, and felt it’d take her as much to pay off the next half. In the meantime, there are credit companies galore giving credit cards to freshman at a Rochester, NY institution).

And credit cards aren’t the only culprits. The film went over tax deals, in which people are given loans at an outrageous rate as an advance on their tax return, the “rent to own” shops like I referred to above, again, the subprime loan rates, any number of means that the wealthy will make a lot of money off the shrinking middle class.

Again, back to the “nonpartisanship,” there’s a portion of the film in which a conservative radio talk show host sponsors a seminar on cutting up credit cards. So it’s not a conservative bashing story at all.

Toward the end of the film, you might say it ends with a “metaphor.” A helicopter with a number of executives of one of the larger credit predators in the US went down in the East River in NY. The executives were rescued, but one of those scholars being interviewed said that, while he wouldn’t wish such a disaster on anyone, in effect, they may have “had it coming” more than anyone else. Then the film returns to the congregation in Norfolk because that’s the home of a large naval base. And even troops and sailors returning from Iraq are being victimized by the 26 or so shops that give the returning troops instant money so they don’t have to wait for their paychecks. But that money comes at a BIG price, still another dimension of the credit industry. (Some are taking out one loan to pay off the last, time and time again!)

Overall, I think it’s important that people, young and not so young, see this film. What I wish it had stressed more is that it’s not just consumption of the frivolous that puts many of us in debt. It’s also unforseen medical expenses and the type of bills we can’t avoid that are also driving many of us into the foreclosures and bankruptcies which were the real subject of the film. I mean, that was covered, but needed to have been stressed more.

Overall, though, Danny, thanks. We needed to see this.