Metro Ride to Capitol Hill: $1.35. Full-Page Ad in the Times: $250,000. Mass-Market Documentary on Credit Card Industry Abuses: Priceless.

by Deepak Gupta

One of the highlights of the Miami conference was an advance screening of Maxed Out, a new documentary on the credit card, credit reporting, and debt collection industries that hits theaters across the country next year.  The movie artfully combines heartbreaking stories of real consumers; segments with industry lobbyists, journalists, academics, and consumer advocates; shockingly honest interviews with a pair of frat boys who started a collection agency and a pawn shop owner who is himself in debt; Congressional testimony; politicians' speeches; and stock footage--all to create a fast-paced narrative that's equal parts humor and outrage, sometimes at the same time.  Members of the consumer law community such as Professor Elizabeth Warren, Bud Hibbs, David Szwack, and Ed Mierzwinski make appearances, as do President Bush, a Comptroller of the Currency official, and the stand-up comedian Louis C.K. (the creator of the hit HBO sitcom Luckie Louie).   

The film is made in the same vein as the fast food documentary Super Size Me--an entertaining and engaging documentary that sheds light on an important public policy problem.  In fact, in a panel discussion following the movie, director James Sculock revealed that he was planning to make a film about obesity in America until he found himself waiting in vain to see Super Size Me at the Sundance Film Festival; he realized immediately that it would be a big hit, and decided to switch gears.  He next planned to make a mostly comedic film about debt in America until his research revealed the gravity of the problem and the nefariousness of the industry's practices and convinced him to shift gears once again.  The result is a sober and responsible documentary that has the potential to shape the law for the better.   Given the change in Congress and the political mood of the nation, it couldn't come at a better time.

A single documentary film can't cover everything that's wrong with the financial services industry in America, of course, and decisions had to be made about what to include and what to leave out.  I could have done without the film's shallow and unexplained analogy between the growing national debt and the crisis of personal debt and might have at least mentioned student loans--but these are relatively minor criticisms.  Maxed Out manages to cover plenty, including the tactics of unscrupulous debt collectors, described in their own damning words; the complete indifference of credit reporting agencies to the overwhelming amount of false data in their reports; and the aggresive hawking of credit cards on university campuses, with kickbacks to university administrators.

The topic of campus credit card solicitation had perhaps the most emotional impact of anything in the film.  The movie profiles two mothers whose children committed suicide because they were so deep into credit card debt that they thought they had no way out--an alarmingly common occurrence.  One of the mothers featured in the film participated in the panel discussion in Miami, lending a very personal perspective on the issue.  (For more on this important topic, including stories of suicides and the complicity of college officials, see Creola Johnson's law review article, Maxed Out College Students: A Call to Limit Credit Card Solicitations on College Campuses, 8 N.Y.U Journal of Law and Public Policy 191 (2005).)

Suffice it to say, every consumer law professor should be screening this film in their classes and every legislator in America should see it.   The new coalition campaign on predatory lending issues, Americans for Fairness in Lending, plans to help roll out the film with selected screenings around the country, including a special Washington, DC, screening for members of Congress.  You may also want to visit AFFIL's website to see a sampling of their brilliant new advertisements on predatory lending issues. 

To read reviews, watch clips, learn more about the film and its director, and find out about screenings in your area, you can visit the film's website, maxedoutmovie.com.   The website even includes a blog by the film's director.    And there's also a fan website, www.maxedoutbuzz.com. We'll be sure bring you more news about Maxed Out as it comes to our attention.

Comments

[wickedman]

I disagree. Im an immigrant student myself and I feel that unless immigrant students and minorities take credit and go through all the hassles that nearly drives them to the point of suicide, they won't ever learn life. Thats probably a good way of teaching them NOT to take credit. Also they won't ever learn what made America a great country. After all who will make the rich Americans richer if not for the poor hapless students!!! ha ha just kidding

[Debt Help Review]

I HAVE to make it a point to rent this movie. I keep seeing it come up in this blog, but never heard of the movie until I recently found this CL&P blog. I have a daughter leaving for college this fall. It sounds like a must-see for her.

[Jeff Sovern]

As someone who has been teaching consumer credit law for nearly twenty years, I had never expected to see a deeply moving movie about the subject. And yet, Maxed Out is just that. I reacted to it much the way Deepak said I should: by wanting to show it to my students. I also recomended it as a teaching tool to my sister who teaches consumer issues to middle school students, among other things (though at least one part of it would not be appropriate to show to middle school students because of "bad" language).

I also had some thoughts about things I would have liked to have seen in the movie. In particular, I would have liked to have seen more about why the consumer credit industry functions as it does. That industry owes a duty to its shareholders to maximize profits. That means lenders should lend to those from whom they can elicit profits, regardless of the impact on those individuals. It also means that the industry has an incentive to fight regulatory proposals which would impair its ability to generate profits and to support proposals which would enhance its ability to earn profits (hence the recent amendments to the bankruptcy laws). It almost seems like lenders are trapped by their obligations to shareholders into behaving exactly as depicted in the movie. Given my lack of experience working for for-profit businesses, I may be wrong about that, but that's how it seems from an academic perspective.