sociological perspectives

Hearings on Squeezing the American Family

Yesterday, the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress (JEC) held a hearing on the economic state of the American family. We've got falling real incomes, a mortgage crisis and a housing market...

Older Americans in Bankruptcy--The First Paper Out of the Consumer Bankruptcy Project

Many of us on Credit Slips are part of the Consumer Bankruptcy Project (CBP), a multidisciplinary research initiative. This week, many of you probably saw the press coverage for the first paper...

The Very Big Men Who Sort Out Debt

During the last session this morning, Professor Stephen Lea (University of Exeter) provided a psychological perspective on debt in poor households in Britain. He initially listed the people he...

Consumption is too important to be left to Consumers

Professor George Ritzer, another sociologist (University of Maryland), presented a hyper paper ("Hyperconsumption" and "Hyperdebt": A "Hypercritical" Analysis). He argues that it has now become part...

God was the poor man’s only surety

The Conference opened with a talk on "Debt, Credit and Poverty in Early Modern England" presented by Dr. J. Craig Muldrew, a history professor from Cambridge (the one in England, not the one in the...

Homeownership Myth (Part II)

As I argue in the earlier posting, the Sunday Washington Post article raises a number of interesting points about the value of homeownership as an investment device. I discuss many of these points in...

The Myth of Homeownership

An article in the Sunday Washington Post asks whether -- given the current housing crisis -- real estate or the stock market is the better investment. Of course, the answer is -- it depends....

The meaning of the loss of home

When Bob Lawless posted yesterday (April 17) the table showing the daily filings for March, 2008, it got me thinking about what exactly those numbers mean, and specifically, about the families who...

An Update on Erica Stevens

Back on February 24, I posted the story of Erica Stevens (again, not her real name). Erica is one of the respondents of the Consumer Bankruptcy Project 2007. I described how her bank had held a check...

Ripped Off by the Banking Industry

Bankrupt folks who participated in the Consumer Bankruptcy Project 2007 had the opportunity to complete a telephone interview. For the interview, they were paid $50. Respondents who shared...