Maxed Out
Hard Times, Easy Credit, and the Era of Predatory Lenders
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $14.24
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
James D. Scurlock
About this listen
Another profitable group can be found in and around our nation's universities, where credit-card issuers are forming "partnerships" with colleges: paying them millions of dollars for access to their students' personal information and essentially setting kids up for financial ruin.
Maxed Out examines an industry that thrives on making people fail, then pursues them relentlessly to death's door. The industry's frontier is called "debt buying" and it's a veritable Wild West in which young men are hoping to make vast fortunes off of the misery and misfortune of others. Their tool is a vast trove of personal information that can be bought for next to nothing - as well as intimidation, guilt, and fear.
By turns hilarious, fascinating, and deeply disturbing, Maxed Out is ultimately one observer's answer to the question, "Why can't we get out of debt?"
©2007 James D. Scurlock. All rights reserved (P)2007 Simon and Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Number Go Up
- Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall
- By: Zeke Faux
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2021 cryptocurrency went mainstream. Giant investment funds were buying it, celebrities like Tom Brady endorsed it, and TV ads hailed it as the future of money. Hardly anyone knew how it worked—but why bother with the particulars when everyone was making a fortune from Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, or some other bizarrely named “digital asset”? As he observed this frenzy, investigative reporter Zeke Faux had a nagging question: Was it all just a confidence game of epic proportions? What started as curiosity—with a dash of FOMO—would morph into a two-year globe-spanning quest.
-
-
Phenomenal story
- By Michael on 10-05-23
By: Zeke Faux
-
Grab the Dream
- Your Step-by-Step Guide to Wealth Management
- By: David W. Engen
- Narrated by: Wayne Evans
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this comprehensive book written in a humorous, down-to-earth, easy-to-understand language, you will learn why some people get ahead in life while others are either just scraping by or falling behind. The American dream will not be handed to you. It is there. You just have to grab it. You must navigate financial challenges, question preconceptions, and make life choices that increase your chances for success.
-
-
good information
- By Amanda Duffy on 04-15-21
By: David W. Engen
-
Financial Peace Revisited
- New Chapters on Marriage, Singles, Kids and Families
- By: Dave Ramsey
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan, CJ Critt
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dave Ramsey's New York Times best-selling guide to better living through financial security, now completely revised and updated.
-
-
Surprisingly disappointing - sorry dave
- By Sally on 12-06-12
By: Dave Ramsey
-
The Snowball
- Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
- By: Alice Schroeder
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 36 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as "The Oracle of Omaha."
-
-
2,220 well-invested minutes!
- By BogKid on 01-07-09
By: Alice Schroeder
-
Broke, USA
- From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc. - How the Working Poor Became Big Business
- By: Gary Rivlin
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For most people, the Great Crash of 2008 has meant troubling times. Not so for those in the flourishing poverty industry, for whom the economic woes spell an opportunity to expand and grow. These mercenary entrepreneurs have taken advantage of an era of deregulation to devise high-priced products to sell to the credit-hungry working poor, including the instant tax refund and the payday loan. In the process, they've created an industry larger than the casino business.
-
-
A Good Read
- By Wade T. Brooks on 06-25-12
By: Gary Rivlin
-
The Barefoot Investor
- The Only Money Guide You'll Ever Need
- By: Scott Pape
- Narrated by: Scott Pape
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the only money guide you'll ever need. That's a bold claim, given there are already thousands of finance books on the shelves. So what makes this one different? You'll get a step-by-step formula: open this account, then do this; call this person, and say this; invest money here and not there. All with a glass of wine in your hand.
-
-
Sure It's An Aussie Book But--
- By Gillian on 03-27-18
By: Scott Pape
-
Number Go Up
- Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall
- By: Zeke Faux
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2021 cryptocurrency went mainstream. Giant investment funds were buying it, celebrities like Tom Brady endorsed it, and TV ads hailed it as the future of money. Hardly anyone knew how it worked—but why bother with the particulars when everyone was making a fortune from Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, or some other bizarrely named “digital asset”? As he observed this frenzy, investigative reporter Zeke Faux had a nagging question: Was it all just a confidence game of epic proportions? What started as curiosity—with a dash of FOMO—would morph into a two-year globe-spanning quest.
-
-
Phenomenal story
- By Michael on 10-05-23
By: Zeke Faux
-
Grab the Dream
- Your Step-by-Step Guide to Wealth Management
- By: David W. Engen
- Narrated by: Wayne Evans
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this comprehensive book written in a humorous, down-to-earth, easy-to-understand language, you will learn why some people get ahead in life while others are either just scraping by or falling behind. The American dream will not be handed to you. It is there. You just have to grab it. You must navigate financial challenges, question preconceptions, and make life choices that increase your chances for success.
-
-
good information
- By Amanda Duffy on 04-15-21
By: David W. Engen
-
Financial Peace Revisited
- New Chapters on Marriage, Singles, Kids and Families
- By: Dave Ramsey
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan, CJ Critt
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dave Ramsey's New York Times best-selling guide to better living through financial security, now completely revised and updated.
-
-
Surprisingly disappointing - sorry dave
- By Sally on 12-06-12
By: Dave Ramsey
-
The Snowball
- Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
- By: Alice Schroeder
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 36 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as "The Oracle of Omaha."
-
-
2,220 well-invested minutes!
- By BogKid on 01-07-09
By: Alice Schroeder
-
Broke, USA
- From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc. - How the Working Poor Became Big Business
- By: Gary Rivlin
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For most people, the Great Crash of 2008 has meant troubling times. Not so for those in the flourishing poverty industry, for whom the economic woes spell an opportunity to expand and grow. These mercenary entrepreneurs have taken advantage of an era of deregulation to devise high-priced products to sell to the credit-hungry working poor, including the instant tax refund and the payday loan. In the process, they've created an industry larger than the casino business.
-
-
A Good Read
- By Wade T. Brooks on 06-25-12
By: Gary Rivlin
-
The Barefoot Investor
- The Only Money Guide You'll Ever Need
- By: Scott Pape
- Narrated by: Scott Pape
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the only money guide you'll ever need. That's a bold claim, given there are already thousands of finance books on the shelves. So what makes this one different? You'll get a step-by-step formula: open this account, then do this; call this person, and say this; invest money here and not there. All with a glass of wine in your hand.
-
-
Sure It's An Aussie Book But--
- By Gillian on 03-27-18
By: Scott Pape
-
This Fight Is Our Fight
- The Battle to Save America's Middle Class
- By: Elizabeth Warren
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Warren
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fiery US senator from Massachusetts and best-selling author offers a passionate, inspiring book about why our middle class is under siege and how we can win the fight to save it.
-
-
An angry rant, not that informative
- By Havi Wingfield on 05-09-17
By: Elizabeth Warren
-
Learn to Earn
- A Beginner's Guide to the Basics of Investing and Business
- By: Peter Lynch, John Rothchild
- Narrated by: Peter Lynch
- Length: 1 hr and 38 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many investors, including some with substantial portfolios, have only the sketchiest idea of how the stock market works. The reason, say Lynch and Rothchild, is that the basics of investing aren't taught in school. At a time when individuals have to make important decisions about saving for college and 401(k) retirement funds, this failure to provide a basic education in investing can have tragic consequences.
-
-
Good Starter
- By Charlie on 03-19-13
By: Peter Lynch, and others
-
Bachelor Pad Economics
- The Financial Advice Bible for Men
- By: Aaron Clarey
- Narrated by: Davis Aurini
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether you're 14 and just trying to figure out life, or 70 and starting to think about estate planning, Bachelor Pad Economics addresses every major (and minor) economic and financial issue the average man will face in his entire life. From dating, to what to major in, to purchasing a home, to starting a business, to children and wife training, Bachelor Pad Economics is the wisdom you wish the father-you-never-had gave you.
-
-
Only for Americans...
- By GNA-1973 on 04-09-19
By: Aaron Clarey
-
Making it in Real Estate
- Starting Out as a Developer
- By: John McNellis
- Narrated by: John McNellis
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What does it take to be a successful real estate developer? Best-selling author John McNellis tells you how, sharing practical tips and advice from his wealth of experience over 35 years in real estate development. Like meeting with a mentor over coffee, McNellis entertains with witty anecdotes and wisdom on how to take advantage of opportunities and avoid pitfalls. Offering humorous insights, the book covers the ins and outs of how to get financing, working with architects, brokers, and other professionals, how to make a good deal, and win approval for your project.
-
-
A must for developers
- By jeremyeb14 on 03-10-21
By: John McNellis
-
The Unwinding
- An Inner History of the New America
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
-
-
Can't understand the low ratings!
- By Janet Pittman Henley on 05-27-13
By: George Packer
-
The Working Poor
- Invisible in America
- By: David K. Shipler
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody who works hard should be poor in America, writes Pulitzer Prize-winner David Shipler. Clear-headed, rigorous, and compassionate, he journeys deeply into the lives of individual store clerks and factory workers, farm laborers and sweat-shop seamstresses, illegal immigrants in menial jobs and Americans saddled with immense student loans and paltry wages. They are known as the working poor.
-
-
Textbook Perfect Discussion of the Problem
- By Cynthia on 07-28-12
By: David K. Shipler
-
Jackpot
- By: Michael Mechanic
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you ever fantasized about being ridiculously wealthy? Probably. Striking it rich is among the most resilient of American fantasies, surviving war and peace, expansions and recessions, economic meltdowns and global pandemics. What is it actually like to be blessed with riches in an era of plagues, political rancor, and near-Dickensian economic differences? Does the experience differ depending on whether the money is earned or unearned, where it comes from, and whether you are male or female, white or Black? These are all questions that Jackpot sets out to explore.
-
-
Defining My Own Discontent
- By Kwafman on 06-02-21
By: Michael Mechanic
-
Homewreckers
- How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream
- By: Aaron Glantz
- Narrated by: Paul Bellantoni
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spirit of Evicted, Bait and Switch, and The Big Short, a shocking, heart-wrenching investigation into America’s housing crisis and the modern-day robber barons who are making a fortune off the backs of the disenfranchised working and middle class - among them, Donald Trump and his inner circle.
-
-
Amazing book - I hope it changes things and mobilizes people to take action!
- By WeaverDreams on 10-20-19
By: Aaron Glantz
-
The Capitalist Code
- It Can Save Your Life and Make You Very Rich
- By: Ben Stein
- Narrated by: Blake Swihart
- Length: 2 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most Americans have not inherited wealth or a successful business that can set them up for life. That means most Americans are destined to live with financial worries and concerns for the rest of their lives, right? Wrong! With his entertaining and informative style, New York Times best-selling author, actor, and financial pundit Ben Stein refutes the current notion that the corporate system is rigged against ordinary citizens and explains how corporate stock ownership is the best system ever devised.
-
-
underwhelming narration
- By Brandon Crow on 10-27-17
By: Ben Stein
-
How Money Became Dangerous
- The Inside Story of Our Turbulent Relationship with Modern Finance
- By: Christopher Varelas, Dan Stone
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a veteran of the trade, a provocative and entertaining voyage into the turbulent heart of modern money that sheds new light on the rise of our threatening and complicated financial system, how money became our adversary, and why finding a new course is crucial to a healthy society.
-
-
Many-sided, thoughtful, very listenable
- By Philo on 02-06-20
By: Christopher Varelas, and others
-
Street Smarts
- Adventures on the Road and in the Markets
- By: Jim Rogers
- Narrated by: Michael Bybee
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jim Rogers, whose entertaining accounts of his travels around the world - studying the markets from Russia to Singapore from the ground up - has enthralled investors and Wall Street aficionados for two decades. In his engaging memoir Street Smarts, Rogers offers pithy commentary from a lifetime of adventure, from his early years growing up a naïve kid in Demopolis, Alabama, to his fledgling career on Wall Street, to his cofounding the wildly successful Quantum Fund [omit George Soros], Rogers always had a restless curiosity to experience and understand the world around him.
-
-
Another Self Indulgent Memoir by Hedge Fund Mgr
- By Timothy McCarthy on 01-17-18
By: Jim Rogers
-
Bad Paper
- Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld
- By: Jake Halpern
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jake Halpern introduces us to a former banking executive and a former armed robber who become partners and go in quest of "paper" - the uncollected debts that are sold off by banks for pennies on the dollar. As Halpern shows, the world of consumer debt collection is a wild and unregulated shadow land, where operators may misrepresent a debtor's situation, make illegal threats, and even lay claim to debts that are not theirs to collect in the first place.
-
-
An Examination of Bad Debts; its Buyers & Sellers
- By Darwin8u on 08-22-16
By: Jake Halpern
Critic reviews
"Scurlock deserves credit (no pun intended) for opening more eyes to this dire issue." (Publishers Weekly)
"Can it be fun to read about people's lives being ruined by predatory lenders? Yes, oddly enough, if James Scurlock is doing the writing. He's as fiendishly clever as the banks and credit-card companies he goes after, which is saying a lot. After reading Maxed Out, you're going to want to shed your creditors and reacquaint yourself with the concept of cash." (Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch)
Related to this topic
-
Homewreckers
- How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream
- By: Aaron Glantz
- Narrated by: Paul Bellantoni
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spirit of Evicted, Bait and Switch, and The Big Short, a shocking, heart-wrenching investigation into America’s housing crisis and the modern-day robber barons who are making a fortune off the backs of the disenfranchised working and middle class - among them, Donald Trump and his inner circle.
-
-
Amazing book - I hope it changes things and mobilizes people to take action!
- By WeaverDreams on 10-20-19
By: Aaron Glantz
-
The Capitalist Code
- It Can Save Your Life and Make You Very Rich
- By: Ben Stein
- Narrated by: Blake Swihart
- Length: 2 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most Americans have not inherited wealth or a successful business that can set them up for life. That means most Americans are destined to live with financial worries and concerns for the rest of their lives, right? Wrong! With his entertaining and informative style, New York Times best-selling author, actor, and financial pundit Ben Stein refutes the current notion that the corporate system is rigged against ordinary citizens and explains how corporate stock ownership is the best system ever devised.
-
-
underwhelming narration
- By Brandon Crow on 10-27-17
By: Ben Stein
-
The Unwinding
- An Inner History of the New America
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
-
-
Can't understand the low ratings!
- By Janet Pittman Henley on 05-27-13
By: George Packer
-
How Money Became Dangerous
- The Inside Story of Our Turbulent Relationship with Modern Finance
- By: Christopher Varelas, Dan Stone
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a veteran of the trade, a provocative and entertaining voyage into the turbulent heart of modern money that sheds new light on the rise of our threatening and complicated financial system, how money became our adversary, and why finding a new course is crucial to a healthy society.
-
-
Many-sided, thoughtful, very listenable
- By Philo on 02-06-20
By: Christopher Varelas, and others
-
The Money Culture
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Alexander Cendese
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 1980s was the most outrageous and turbulent era in the financial market since the crash of ’29, not only on Wall Street but around the world. Michael Lewis, as a trainee at Salomon Brothers in New York and as an investment banker and later financial journalist, was uniquely positioned to chronicle the ambition and folly that fueled the decade. In these trenchant, often hilarious true tales we meet the colorful movers and shakers who commanded the headlines and rewrote the rules.
-
-
Not the normal great Michael Lewis
- By Me on 05-12-12
By: Michael Lewis
-
Bad Paper
- Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld
- By: Jake Halpern
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jake Halpern introduces us to a former banking executive and a former armed robber who become partners and go in quest of "paper" - the uncollected debts that are sold off by banks for pennies on the dollar. As Halpern shows, the world of consumer debt collection is a wild and unregulated shadow land, where operators may misrepresent a debtor's situation, make illegal threats, and even lay claim to debts that are not theirs to collect in the first place.
-
-
An Examination of Bad Debts; its Buyers & Sellers
- By Darwin8u on 08-22-16
By: Jake Halpern
-
Homewreckers
- How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream
- By: Aaron Glantz
- Narrated by: Paul Bellantoni
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spirit of Evicted, Bait and Switch, and The Big Short, a shocking, heart-wrenching investigation into America’s housing crisis and the modern-day robber barons who are making a fortune off the backs of the disenfranchised working and middle class - among them, Donald Trump and his inner circle.
-
-
Amazing book - I hope it changes things and mobilizes people to take action!
- By WeaverDreams on 10-20-19
By: Aaron Glantz
-
The Capitalist Code
- It Can Save Your Life and Make You Very Rich
- By: Ben Stein
- Narrated by: Blake Swihart
- Length: 2 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most Americans have not inherited wealth or a successful business that can set them up for life. That means most Americans are destined to live with financial worries and concerns for the rest of their lives, right? Wrong! With his entertaining and informative style, New York Times best-selling author, actor, and financial pundit Ben Stein refutes the current notion that the corporate system is rigged against ordinary citizens and explains how corporate stock ownership is the best system ever devised.
-
-
underwhelming narration
- By Brandon Crow on 10-27-17
By: Ben Stein
-
The Unwinding
- An Inner History of the New America
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
-
-
Can't understand the low ratings!
- By Janet Pittman Henley on 05-27-13
By: George Packer
-
How Money Became Dangerous
- The Inside Story of Our Turbulent Relationship with Modern Finance
- By: Christopher Varelas, Dan Stone
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a veteran of the trade, a provocative and entertaining voyage into the turbulent heart of modern money that sheds new light on the rise of our threatening and complicated financial system, how money became our adversary, and why finding a new course is crucial to a healthy society.
-
-
Many-sided, thoughtful, very listenable
- By Philo on 02-06-20
By: Christopher Varelas, and others
-
The Money Culture
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Alexander Cendese
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 1980s was the most outrageous and turbulent era in the financial market since the crash of ’29, not only on Wall Street but around the world. Michael Lewis, as a trainee at Salomon Brothers in New York and as an investment banker and later financial journalist, was uniquely positioned to chronicle the ambition and folly that fueled the decade. In these trenchant, often hilarious true tales we meet the colorful movers and shakers who commanded the headlines and rewrote the rules.
-
-
Not the normal great Michael Lewis
- By Me on 05-12-12
By: Michael Lewis
-
Bad Paper
- Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld
- By: Jake Halpern
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jake Halpern introduces us to a former banking executive and a former armed robber who become partners and go in quest of "paper" - the uncollected debts that are sold off by banks for pennies on the dollar. As Halpern shows, the world of consumer debt collection is a wild and unregulated shadow land, where operators may misrepresent a debtor's situation, make illegal threats, and even lay claim to debts that are not theirs to collect in the first place.
-
-
An Examination of Bad Debts; its Buyers & Sellers
- By Darwin8u on 08-22-16
By: Jake Halpern
-
Pound Foolish
- Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry
- By: Helaine Olen
- Narrated by: Lyn Landon
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the past few decades, Americans have spent billions of dollars on personal finance products. As salaries have stagnated and companies have cut back on benefits, we've taken matters into our own hands, embracing the can-do attitude that if we're smart enough, we can overcome even daunting financial obstacles. But that's not true. In this meticulously reported and shocking audiobook, journalist and former financial columnist Helaine Olen goes behind the curtain of the personal finance industry to expose the myths, contradictions, and outright lies it has perpetuated.
-
-
The dark side of my industry
- By jfoxcpacfp on 06-15-13
By: Helaine Olen
-
Glass House
- The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town
- By: Brian Alexander
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Anchor Hocking Glass Company, once the world's largest maker of glass tableware, was the base on which Lancaster's society was built. As Glass House unfolds, bankruptcy looms. With access to the company and its leaders, and Lancaster's citizens, Alexander shows how financial engineering took hold in the 1980s, accelerated in the 21st century, and wrecked the company.
-
-
What really happened to the American Dream?
- By Bill on 05-10-17
By: Brian Alexander
-
Third World America
- How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream
- By: Arianna Huffington
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America's middle class, the driver of so much of our economic success and political stability, is rapidly disappearing, forcing us to confront the fear that we are slipping as a nation - that our children and grandchildren will enjoy fewer opportunities and face a lower standard of living than we did. It's the dark flipside of the American Dream - an American Nightmare of our own making.
-
-
Sad... but with a ray of hope
- By Maciej on 10-20-10
-
The Up Side of Down
- Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success
- By: Megan McArdle
- Narrated by: Mia Barron
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most new products fail. So do most small businesses. And most of us, if we are honest, have experienced a major setback in our personal or professional lives. So what determines who will bounce back and follow up with a home run? If you want to succeed in business and in life, Megan McArdle argues in this hugely thought-provoking book, you have to learn how to harness the power of failure. McArdle has been one of our most popular business bloggers for more than a decade, covering the rise and fall of some the world' s top companies and challenging us to think differently about how we live, learn, and work.
-
-
Good Book
- By Ray on 05-21-14
By: Megan McArdle
-
Richistan
- A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich
- By: Robert Frank
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through Richistan entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own "arborists". They're also different from Old Money, and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire.
-
-
Ho Hum....being rich is work!
- By Scarlett on 06-16-07
By: Robert Frank
-
Financial Peace Revisited
- New Chapters on Marriage, Singles, Kids and Families
- By: Dave Ramsey
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan, CJ Critt
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dave Ramsey's New York Times best-selling guide to better living through financial security, now completely revised and updated.
-
-
Surprisingly disappointing - sorry dave
- By Sally on 12-06-12
By: Dave Ramsey
-
The Index Card
- Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
- By: Helaine Olen, Harold Pollack
- Narrated by: Helaine Olen, Harold Pollack
- Length: 3 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
TV analysts and money managers would have you believe your finances are enormously complicated, and if you don't follow their guidance, you'll end up in the poorhouse. They're wrong. When University of Chicago professor Harold Pollack interviewed Helaine Olen, an award-winning financial journalist and the author of the best-selling Pound Foolish, he made an offhand suggestion: Everything you need to know about managing your money could fit on an index card.
-
-
Getting your personal finance right? Start here.
- By Alan J on 04-27-18
By: Helaine Olen, and others
-
Clark Howard's Living Large in Lean Times
- 250+ Ways to Buy Smarter, Spend Smarter, and Save Money
- By: Clark Howard, Mark Maltzer, Theo Thimou
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clark Howard is a media powerhouse and penny-pincher extraordinaire who knows a thing or two about money. A lifelong entrepreneur who is now the hugely popular host of a talk radio program and television show and the bestselling author of several books, Clark consistently delivers expert financial advice to his wide and devoted fan base.
-
-
Not too good
- By Chad on 09-28-11
By: Clark Howard, and others
-
The International Bank of Bob
- Connecting Our World One $25 Kiva Loan at a Time
- By: Bob Harris
- Narrated by: Bob Harris
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hired by ForbesTraveler.com to review some of the most luxurious accommodations on Earth, and then inspired by a chance encounter in Dubai with the impoverished workers whose backbreaking jobs create such opulence, Bob Harris had an epiphany: He would turn his own good fortune into an effort to make lives like theirs better.
-
-
Wonderfully entertaining and accessible book
- By Tim on 01-15-14
By: Bob Harris
-
Fulfillment
- Winning and Losing in One-Click America
- By: Alec MacGillis
- Narrated by: Danny Gavigan
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alec MacGillis’ Fulfillment is not another inside account or exposé of our most conspicuously dominant company. Rather, it is a literary investigation of the America that falls within that company’s growing shadow. As MacGillis shows, Amazon’s sprawling network of delivery hubs, data centers, and corporate campuses epitomizes a land where winner and loser cities and regions are drifting steadily apart, the civic fabric is unraveling, and work has become increasingly rudimentary and isolated.
-
-
Missing some important angles
- By D. Zimmerle on 08-19-21
By: Alec MacGillis
-
Iceland's Secret
- The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Con
- By: Jared Bibler
- Narrated by: Jared Bibler
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in Massachusetts, Jared Bibler relocated to Iceland in 2004 only to find himself in the middle of an unprecedented financial crisis a handful of years later. Personally wiped out and seeking to uncover the truth about a collapse that brought the pastoral country to its knees, he became the lead investigator into some of the largest financial crimes in the world. This work helped Iceland to famously become the only country to jail its bank CEOs in the wake of the 2008 crisis.
-
-
Excellent description of Icelands finacial crash
- By CJF on 08-19-24
By: Jared Bibler
-
The Working Poor
- Invisible in America
- By: David K. Shipler
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody who works hard should be poor in America, writes Pulitzer Prize-winner David Shipler. Clear-headed, rigorous, and compassionate, he journeys deeply into the lives of individual store clerks and factory workers, farm laborers and sweat-shop seamstresses, illegal immigrants in menial jobs and Americans saddled with immense student loans and paltry wages. They are known as the working poor.
-
-
Textbook Perfect Discussion of the Problem
- By Cynthia on 07-28-12
By: David K. Shipler
What listeners say about Maxed Out
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Vikki
- 05-11-07
FANTASTIC
I recommend this book to everyone. Especially those who find themselves one paycheck away from being homeless.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- iLude
- 03-02-08
Terrible
Terrible, anti-corporate and bemoaning of reality. The author needs a lesson in basic economics.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!