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The deteriorating economy weighs heavily on the minds of all of us all these days. Ordinary Americans have struggled paying their mortgages, jobs are being lost, and prices for oil, food, health care and other essentials have risen astronomically. For many, the only way to pay is by using a credit card – going even further into debt.  

An endless cycle of debt seems like a bad idea for lenders as well as borrowers – yet in reality your ballooning credit card balance is part of a profit plan devised by major banks and credit card companies. With the subprime loan market imploding, banks failing, and the government stepping in with bailouts, the days of easy credit are over. But whether ordinary Americans will win out – or Joe taxpayer ends up footing the bill to prop up banks and their shareholders – remains to be seen.    

Join host Wendy Hanamura and her guest, Danny Schechter, veteran journalist, media critic and editor of Mediachannel.org, as they discuss how you can free yourself from the tyranny of debt, and why the mainstream media has preferred to keep this story under wraps.

About the film: In Debt We Trust

With In Debt We Trust – America Before the Bubble Bursts, Danny Schechter puts a magnifying glass to the fine print and exposes how the credit card companies and banking institutions have turned us into a debtor nation. This documentary feature looks at Americans’ relationship with debt and examines what will happen when our ballooning national debt comes due. Our addiction to consumption and debt as a national pastime is an issue that cuts across political, racial, class and generational lines. Over time, Congress has virtually legalized loan sharking by financial institutions leaving hard working Americans at the short end of a bad deal.  This film is about fighting back.

LEARN MORE:

For more information or to see the trailer, visit In Debt We Trust online.

Visit Danny Schechter's News Dissector blog or MediaChannel.org.

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