Borrowing to Live Consumer and Mortgage Credit Revisited

by Retsinas, Nicolas P.; Belsky, Eric S.

• ISBN13: 9780815774136
• ISBN10: 0815774133
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-12-02
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Summary

Americans are awash in debt, and the U.S. economy is in trouble. Credit undergirds daily life more than ever-it has become one of the defining aspects of American life, and the ramifications are becoming clearer by the day. The already considerable damage from a depressed housing market has been exacerbated by the subprime lender implosion, sending shock waves through the financial sector, international economies, and government at all levels. Most low- or moderate-income people borrow, but that should not be construed as uniformly poor judgment or lack of discipline-Americans are not borrowing merely to keep up with the Joneses, but too often simply to stay afloat.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: Borrowing to Live	p. 1
Consumer and Mortgage Credit at the Crossroads	p. 5
Where Does It Go? Spending by the Financially Constrained	p. 65
Financial Decisionmaking Processes of Low-Income Individuals	p. 92
The Legal Infrastructure of Subprime and Nontraditional Home Mortgages	p. 110
The Impact of State Antipredatory Lending Laws: Policy Implications and Insights	p. 138
Behaviorally Informed Home Mortgage Credit Regulation	p. 170
Interventions in Mortgage Default: Policies and Practices to Prevent Home Loss and Lower Costs	p. 203
Looking beyond Our Shores: Consumer Protection Regulation Lessons from the United Kingdom	p. 255
Contributors	p. 269
Index	p. 271
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