Debt

Darryl Dahlheimer, a project manager at Lutheran Social Service financial counseling in Minneapolis, points to the main reason we got into this mess: “We’ve been fetishizing free markets for the last 15 years to the detriment of the consumer and families and stable communities.”

Now consumers are experiencing anger and starting to fight back in the face of a $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

Americans are drowning in debt like never before, yet the big, ugly “d” word has been of little issue in this election. Still, policymakers are way behind on creating credit reform, both from a consumer and fiscal standpoint. After all, consumers are in way over their heads, with delinquencies and defaults rising by double-digit percentages [...]

It’s a weird kind of fortune that greets Tobin Brogunier’s new publication, Creditland. A free tabloid distributed in the Twin Cities and Brooklyn, N.Y., its launch coincides with a spike in awareness of credit debt brought on by a meltdown in the subprime lending market and the premiere of the award-winning documentary film Maxed Out [...]