Consumer Lending in France and America

Consumer Lending in France and America PDF Author: Gunnar Trumbull
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107015650
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
"At the beginning of the 20th century, consumer credit in the United States was perceived as unfair and exploitative. Social reformers fought to limit the economic and social impact of small lenders they decried as loan sharks. Reputable businesses steered clear of sales credit because of the questionable consumers that it would attract. By the 1970s, however, credit in America had been reimagined as a legitimate tool of household finance that was understood to have broad social and economic benefits. This transformation in the moral economy of credit accompanied a revolution in lending technologies and the regulatory treatment of consumer credit. Ultimately, these changes allowed American households to amass unprecedented debt -- debt that eventually precipitated the worst financial crisis of postwar America. To understand the origins of that crisis, we need to understand not just the shifting habits of consumers, but also what happened to lenders as the public moved from opposing credit to embracing it. This book traces how that transformation occurred. Nearly all accounts of the origins of American consumer credit have focused exclusively on the U.S. experience. Single-country case studies have their virtues. But they do not allow the observer easily to differentiate what is unusual about the U.S. case from what is common even to countries with very different credit practices"--

Consumer Lending in France and America

Consumer Lending in France and America PDF Author: Gunnar Trumbull
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107015650
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Get Book Here

Book Description
"At the beginning of the 20th century, consumer credit in the United States was perceived as unfair and exploitative. Social reformers fought to limit the economic and social impact of small lenders they decried as loan sharks. Reputable businesses steered clear of sales credit because of the questionable consumers that it would attract. By the 1970s, however, credit in America had been reimagined as a legitimate tool of household finance that was understood to have broad social and economic benefits. This transformation in the moral economy of credit accompanied a revolution in lending technologies and the regulatory treatment of consumer credit. Ultimately, these changes allowed American households to amass unprecedented debt -- debt that eventually precipitated the worst financial crisis of postwar America. To understand the origins of that crisis, we need to understand not just the shifting habits of consumers, but also what happened to lenders as the public moved from opposing credit to embracing it. This book traces how that transformation occurred. Nearly all accounts of the origins of American consumer credit have focused exclusively on the U.S. experience. Single-country case studies have their virtues. But they do not allow the observer easily to differentiate what is unusual about the U.S. case from what is common even to countries with very different credit practices"--

Regulating for Legitimacy

Regulating for Legitimacy PDF Author: Gunnar Trumbull
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Book Description
Theories of legitimate regulation have emphasized the role of governments either in fixing market failures to promote greater efficiency, or in restricting the efficient functioning of markets in order to pursue public welfare goals. In either case, features of markets serve to justify regulatory intervention. I argue that this causal logic must sometimes be reversed. For certain areas of regulation, its function must be understood as making markets legitimate. Based on a comparative historical analysis of consumer lending in the United States and France, I argue that national differences in the regulation of consumer credit had their roots in the historical conditions by which the small loan sector came to be legitimized. Americans have supported a liberal regulation of credit because they have been taught that access to credit is welfare promoting. This perception emerged from an historical coalition between commercial banks and NGOs that promoted credit as the solution to a range of social ills. The French regulate credit tightly because they came to see credit as both economically risky and a source of reduced purchasing power. This attitude has its roots in the early postwar lending environment, in which loans were seen to be beneficial only if they were accompanied by strong government protections. These cases suggest that national differences in regulation may trace to historically contingent conditions under which markets are constructed as legitimate.

Financing the American Consumer

Financing the American Consumer PDF Author: Carl Anton Dauten
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consumer credit
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description


Consumer Lending

Consumer Lending PDF Author: American Bankers Association
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780899821108
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description


American Bonds

American Bonds PDF Author: Sarah L. Quinn
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691227071
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
How the American government has long used financial credit programs to create economic opportunities Federal housing finance policy and mortgage-backed securities have gained widespread attention in recent years because of the 2008 financial crisis, but issues of government credit have been part of American life since the nation’s founding. From the 1780s, when a watershed national land credit policy was established, to the postwar foundations of our current housing finance system, American Bonds examines the evolution of securitization and federal credit programs. Sarah Quinn shows that since the Westward expansion, the U.S. government has used financial markets to manage America’s complex social divides, and politicians and officials across the political spectrum have turned to land sales, home ownership, and credit to provide economic opportunity without the appearance of market intervention or direct wealth redistribution. Highly technical systems, securitization, and credit programs have been fundamental to how Americans determined what they could and should owe one another. Over time, government officials embraced credit as a political tool that allowed them to navigate an increasingly complex and fractured political system, affirming the government’s role as a consequential and creative market participant. Neither intermittent nor marginal, credit programs supported the growth of powerful industries, from railroads and farms to housing and finance; have been used for disaster relief, foreign policy, and military efforts; and were promoters of amortized mortgages, lending abroad, venture capital investment, and mortgage securitization. Illuminating America’s market-heavy social policies, American Bonds illustrates how political institutions became involved in the nation’s lending practices.

The Development of Consumer Credit in Global Perspective

The Development of Consumer Credit in Global Perspective PDF Author: J. Logemann
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 113706207X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
This volume brings together historians, economists, political scientists, and anthropologists to present a global perspective on the new forms of lending and borrowing that have become a key feature of twentieth-century mass consumer societies, emphasizing comparative and transnational historical perspectives.

Financing the American Dream

Financing the American Dream PDF Author: Calder
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781400815333
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Consumer Debt and Social Exclusion in Europe

Consumer Debt and Social Exclusion in Europe PDF Author: Hans-W. Micklitz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317161262
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
This book analyses the dichotomy between the goal of social inclusion and the effect of social exclusion through over-indebtedness since 2008 in Europe. Filling a vital gap in the current literature on the effects of the financial and economic crisis, this volume puts into context academic discussion with the real-life dimension of over-indebtedness. Reports from six European countries provide socio-economic and legal information on over-indebtedness as well as the regulatory and judicial responses to the problems entailed by over-indebtedness. They form the empirical background for five analyses of different aspects of the inclusion-exclusion dichotomy. It becomes clear that in the context of credit expansion, individual over-indebtedness has turned into a social issue, which the current design of the consumer credit and mortgage system in Europe has helped to produce while disregarding the consequential danger of social exclusion.

Personal Insolvency in the 21st Century

Personal Insolvency in the 21st Century PDF Author: Iain Ramsay
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1509900993
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Since 1979 the world has witnessed a remarkable cycle of personal insolvency law reform. Changes in capitalist economies, financial crises and political interest groups all contributed to this cycle of reform. This book examines the role of interest groups and distinct narratives in shaping reform in different countries while drawing attention to the role of timing, path dependency and unintended consequences in the development of personal insolvency law. The book presents case studies of personal insolvency law in the US, France, Sweden, and England and Wales. It then analyses how, following the Great Recession of 2008, international financial institutions paid greater attention to the significance of household debt in contributing to financial instability and the role of individual insolvency law in providing a fresh start. Personal insolvency law reform became part of EU responses to the eurozone crisis and the EU has proposed harmonisation of individual insolvency law to promote entrepreneurialism. This book examines the extent to which these developments represent an emerging international commonsense about personal insolvency and its relationship to neo-liberalism. Finally, this book discusses whether the international emergence of individual personal insolvency law represents a progressive step or a band-aid for the costs of neo-liberal policies, where a significant number of people live close to the precipice of over-indebtedness.

Consumer Credit and the American Economy

Consumer Credit and the American Economy PDF Author: Thomas A. Durkin
Publisher:
ISBN: 0195169921
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 737

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Book Description
Consumer Credit and the American Economy examines the economics, behavioral science, sociology, history, institutions, law, and regulation of consumer credit in the United States. After discussing the origins and various kinds of consumer credit available in today's marketplace, this book reviews at some length the long run growth of consumer credit to explore the widely held belief that somehow consumer credit has risen "too fast for too long." It then turns to demand and supply with chapters discussing neoclassical theories of demand, new behavioral economics, and evidence on production costs and why consumer credit might seem expensive compared to some other kinds of credit like government finance. This discussion includes review of the economics of risk management and funding sources, as well discussion of the economic theory of why some people might be limited in their credit search, the phenomenon of credit rationing. This examination includes review of issues of risk management through mathematical methods of borrower screening known as credit scoring and financial market sources of funding for offerings of consumer credit. The book then discusses technological change in credit granting. It examines how modern automated information systems called credit reporting agencies, or more popularly "credit bureaus," reduce the costs of information acquisition and permit greater credit availability at less cost. This discussion is followed by examination of the logical offspring of technology, the ubiquitous credit card that permits consumers access to both payments and credit services worldwide virtually instantly. After a chapter on institutions that have arisen to supply credit to individuals for whom mainstream credit is often unavailable, including "payday loans" and other small dollar sources of loans, discussion turns to legal structure and the regulation of consumer credit. There are separate chapters on the theories behind the two main thrusts of federal regulation to this point, fairness for all and financial disclosure. Following these chapters, there is another on state regulation that has long focused on marketplace access and pricing. Before a final concluding chapter, another chapter focuses on two noncredit marketplace products that are closely related to credit. The first of them, debt protection including credit insurance and other forms of credit protection, is economically a complement. The second product, consumer leasing, is a substitute for credit use in many situations, especially involving acquisition of automobiles. This chapter is followed by a full review of consumer bankruptcy, what happens in the worst of cases when consumers find themselves unable to repay their loans. Because of the importance of consumer credit in consumers' financial affairs, the intended audience includes anyone interested in these issues, not only specialists who spend much of their time focused on them. For this reason, the authors have carefully avoided academic jargon and the mathematics that is the modern language of economics. It also examines the psychological, sociological, historical, and especially legal traditions that go into fully understanding what has led to the demand for consumer credit and to what the markets and institutions that provide these products have become today.