Description
Publisher's Weekly Top 10 Fall Release in Business and Economics
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.
About the Author
Elena Botella was a Senior Business Manager at Capital One, where she ran the company's Secured Card credit card and taught credit risk management. Her writing has appeared in The New Republic, Slate, American Banker, and The Nation.
Reviews
"An ambitious insider's critique of the 'debt machine' created by credit card companies and financial culture. . . . Original, passionate fusion of progressive polemic and stark portrait of the labyrinth of contemporary consumer finance." * Kirkus *
Book Information
ISBN 9780520380356
Author Elena Botella
Format Hardback
Page Count 320
Imprint University of California Press
Publisher University of California Press
Weight(grams) 590g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 30mm
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.
About the Author
Elena Botella was a Senior Business Manager at Capital One, where she ran the company's Secured Card credit card and taught credit risk management. Her writing has appeared in The New Republic, Slate, American Banker, and The Nation.
Reviews
"An ambitious insider's critique of the 'debt machine' created by credit card companies and financial culture. . . . Original, passionate fusion of progressive polemic and stark portrait of the labyrinth of contemporary consumer finance." * Kirkus *
Book Information
ISBN 9780520380356
Author Elena Botella
Format Hardback
Page Count 320
Imprint University of California Press
Publisher University of California Press
Weight(grams) 590g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 30mm
