Debt's Grip: Risk and Consumer BankruptcyDebt’s Grip tells the story of financial struggle in the United States. Drawing on original data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, a landmark long-term study, the authors use the words of bankruptcy filers themselves to shed light on their battles to keep their homes and their cars, pay for healthcare and higher education, care for their children, find adequate employment, retire, negotiate with debt collectors, and confront discrimination in lending. Laying bare the consequences of risk privatization, this book makes a powerful case for why the United States must confront the structural inequities that cause so many—especially Black families, women, and the elderly—to struggle in today’s economy. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Filing Bankruptcy and the Bankruptcy System | 18 |
taBles | 21 |
Struggling to Survive | 35 |
Staying Home and Going Places | 56 |
Staying Alive | 75 |
Staying Out of the Red | 90 |
Blackness of Bankruptcy | 107 |
The Riskiest YearsBankrupt Seniors | 159 |
Lawsuits and Debt Collectors | 183 |
Resourced Bankruptcy Filers | 202 |
Reforming Bankruptcys Injustices | 216 |
Methodological Appendix | 231 |
Descriptive Statistics for All Filers in the CBP Sample | 236 |
Bibliography | 259 |
| 285 | |
Other editions - View all
Debt's Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy Pamela Foohey,Robert M. Lawless,Deborah Thorne Limited preview - 2025 |
Debt's Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy Pamela Foohey,Robert M. Lawless,Deborah Thorne No preview available - 2025 |
Common terms and phrases
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