Working for Change has an interview with documentary filmmaker Danny Schechter, who has produced In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Bursts.

It’s the old story of special interests running the show. And because it’s “economics,” we have what’s called the “me go” effect, which is, my eyes glaze over… It’s so complicated for me to understand. People tune out when there are discussions of it.

Often the public discussions themselves match up some advocate from a community group against a very slick representative of a credit card company who has his message points down and is extremely persuasive. It’s very easy, also, to blame the public, if you didn’t pay your bills on time, or if you signed the agreements, which are essentially unreadable.

BUZZFLASH: You have one gentleman who holds up twenty pages in small print.

DANNY SCHECHTER: A law professor writes, “I can’t even read these.” This - and the companies can unilaterally change the terms of the agreement after you sign them.

Companion website

Usury: noun
1. the lending or practice of lending money at an exorbitant interest.
2. an exorbitant amount or rate of interest, esp. in excess of the legal rate.
3. Obsolete. interest paid for the use of money.

Cerulean Sanctum also looked at the debtload people are carrying and asks why the church isn’t teaching and preparing.

…I believe that our churches must start working toward some kind of money pool to help fellow congregants who fall on hard times. With so many families’ money highly leveraged, and the reality that the middle class is fighting a losing battle against rising costs, something needs to be done on a macro level to fix some of the financial injustices people face today.

But the pulpit is silent. Sure, you’ll hear about Ron Blue or Crown Financial stuff from time to time, but they only address individual issues. Who in the Church in America speaks out against the real problem, our broken system? 

Sure, we Americans spend too much of our incomes. But if the middle class continues to erode, it won’t be a matter of spending too much on a consumeristic lifestyle. The real problem will be how to cope when curtailing excess spending simply won’t halt the slide. You can shave expenses down to the bone, but when the bone’s gone missing…

All it takes is a minor recession, I think. Or Ford or GM collapsing. With so many precariously perched families with no savings, high credit card debt, loans taken against homes of decreasing value—it won’t take much.

Church, are we ready? Truly?

Time to wake up and start preparing for that day.