Sunday Afternoon Movie

It's raining in NYC today, so naturally we stayed in and watched a movie - Maxed Out.

It's a thought-provoking documentary that focuses primarily on the predatory lending practices of credit card companies and other financial institutions (including shady Providian, and the big banks like Citi, Chase, etc.)

The film at times seems a bit uneven in trying to tackle too much. For example, it touches on everything from controversial credit card marketing practices in wooing college students to tackling the U.S. budget deficit.

However, the poignant moments come when the film highlights individuals so caught up in debt that there is often no relief. And more often there are desperate and tragic results. Sadly, it also points out the increasingly widening gap between the have's and have-not's and the corresponding elimination of a middle-class. The bottom-line is to stay as fiscally prudent and knowledgable as possible so as not to fall into a debt trap that one cannot escape from.