I received a copy of Charles Geisst’s newest book, Collateral Damaged: The Marketing of Consumer Debt to America*, from the publisher. As the subtitle suggests, the book is a history of consumer debt. I found it interesting and insightful.

After finishing the book, I decided to ask Mr. Geisst if he would answer a few questions for me. He obliged and the you can see the results below.

JLP: What inspired you to decide to write a book about consumer debt in America?

CG: Too much consumer debt has been created by securitization in the US and it was time to determine how much of a role it played in the crisis. Turns out it was significant.

JLP: What do you think was the main cause of the credit/mortgage crisis we experienced over the last couple of years? Was there one event that stood out to you as the main cause or was it a number of events?

CG: The main cause of this was ease of access to credit, from the lneding banks and credit card companies. But clearly it was caused by excessive securitization.

JLP: You talk about usury laws in the book. What are usury laws and do you think they should be brought back?

CG: Historically, in the US usury laws limited the amount of interest that could be charged on a loan, mortgages and consumer loans, although sometimes vaguely. The idea is to bring them back as one law on the federal level, limiting the amount of interest on credit cards and other forms of consumer interest.

JLP: Can another debt crisis be avoided? If so, how?

CG: Avoid next crisis by strict obedience to good lending practices and establish limit on consumer interest. Also, securitization must be effectively monitored.

JLP: What role do you think regulation plays in a capitalistic society? What areas should be regulated?

CG: Too broad to answer easily. Effective regulation on the credit creation process.

JLP: Do you think America is still a capitalistic society?

CG: Yes, capitalism is much more than unbridled, unregulated tomfoolery of the type we have seen over the last 20 years.

JLP: I have written quite a bit about the mortgage crisis. I know it is simplistic but I have always taken the stance that lack of personal responsibility played a huge role in this crisis. What are your thoughts on this?

CG: Yes, of course but it is too difficult to quantify and then qualify. Usually a political point made by conservatives.

JLP: Was it a wise decision for the government to get involved by bailing out financial institutions and some borrowers? Does this set some sort of precedent that the government will always come to the rescue?

CG: Government always has, except in cases of blatant criminality.

JLP: Where do you see the U.S.A. going from here? How long will it take us to move beyond this crisis?

CG: Hopefully, back to a simpler method of borrowing and lending, with less bells and whistles and exotic products. Probably take 5 to 7 years.

JLP: Thanks for your time.

If you are looking for a book that will give you a good overview of the history of debt in America, check out Collateral Damaged*.

*Affiliate Link

Publisher, Wiley, sent me a review copy of The Worst-Case Scenario Business Survival Guide* to read and review. I read it in one sitting (it’s a REALLY short book) and thought it would be cool to give away.

But, before we do that, let me share my thoughts on the book.

I like this book. It’s a book written for business owners. It’s arranged in 5 chapters, each dealing with one particular business emergency. What emergencies? Well, stuff like:

• Financial Emergencies (things like how to survive when you can’t make payroll…)

• HR Emergencies (how to fire someone; how to deal with a complainer…)

• Productivity Emergencies (how to identify true priorities; how to fend off mission drift)

• Sales and Marketing Emergencies (how to sell when no one is buying)

• Executive Emergencies (how to deliver bad news…)

There’s not a lot of detail in the book, but that’s because it’s meant to be more of a checklist/idea book. The cool thing about it is at the beginning of each section, they mention experts—along with links to those experts’ websites&151;who helped pen that particular section. So, readers could contact those experts if they felt the need. Does that make the book “salesy?” Not at all. I didn’t feel that way when I was reading it and I’m a pretty skeptical fella.

Anyway, it’s an interesting approach to a book. I enjoyed it and you might too.

Now, if you’re interested in winning a copy of the book, leave a comment below. I have one copy to give away.

Just remember my two rules:

1. You must be a resident of North America (I won’t ship internationally).

2. You can only enter ONE time.

GOOD LUCK! I’ll announce the winner Thursday or Friday morning.

*Affiliate Link

While reading the book, I thought that the book was written by a woman for women, that it would be cool to get a woman’s perspective on the book and perhaps a review. So, I asked Beth, a long-time reader of this blog and a friend of mine, if she would read and review the book for me if I sent her a copy. She kindly agreed and below is her review.

Beth’s Review

As you read this review, keep in mind that I am somewhat biased as a professional, successful, single mom…

As I began this book, I was irritated and wasn’t even through the introduction yet! Lavine implies that today’s system is one that penalizes women twice: once for the fact that we are women and once for those of us who are moms. I disagree strongly with Lavine’s initial statements. She refers to a ‘new’ system that differs from the current one in that it will not compromise “our need to be great moms.” I don’t feel that the current state of mind compromises my responsibilities as a mom, nor do I think current business ideals limit me in any way – as a professional or as a mom.

Lavine refers to the corporate world as a ‘glass ceiling’ for women; constantly limiting us to what we can achieve professionally, economically and personally, while allowing us to see all that we are missing. Again, I must disagree with her. I believe that high dollar incomes, professional growth and development, and personal attributes are a direct result of hard work by any dedicated person, male or female.

She refers to many statistics that can be disturbing to some, but you have to wonder if she’s sharing her personal anger or if she’s trying to motivate us (women AND men) to stand up and make decisions for ourselves, without allowing corporate business ideals to take charge.

I will, however, promote Lavine’s book because, once you get through the first few chapters, she gives a positive and motivational perspective to the audience. You have to read between the lines at times to understand what Lavine is trying to say. I did gain some inspiration from the book and Lavine reminded me that, “…attitude is the only thing that separates the winners from the losers.” You must remain positive, stand for your beliefs and never compromise your dreams if you want to be truly successful in life – personally and professionally.

*Affiliate Link

Please email (JLP – at – AllFinancialMatters.com) me your favorite personal finance (or money-related) book of all time.

I’ll put a list together and post it next week. If you are a blogger, please include your blog’s URL along with a link to a book review you might have done on the book you are suggesting.

Commenter #46, Vishal Parekh

Congrats to Vishal.

I’ll be hosting another giveaway in the next couple of days. This one will be for a college planning book. Stay tuned…

JLP’s Thoughts

I think I’m on an automatic mailing program from book publisher, Wiley. I received a copy of Kim Lavine’s The Mommy Manifesto: How to Use Our Power to Think Big, Break Limitations and Achieve Success* a little over a week ago. As the title and author suggests, it’s a book by a woman for women.

It’s a short read (thank the Good Lord).

I have to say as a guy, this book bugged me. The author comes across as quite angry at the treatment of women in society and she paints all men with a broad brush. Not all men are chauvanists just like not all women are mean. Yes, there are extremes and we are all aware of them. I also didn’t appreciate other generalizations the author makes in other parts of the book regarding men. I mean, if the her intent is for society to quit generalizing women, then shouldn’t she be leading by example when she talks about men?

The second chapter of the book is dedicated to all that’s wrong with the world and its treatment of women. Some of her statistics include:

• In the United States Congress, only 87 of the 535 members—or 16.3 percent—are women.

• There are currently 8 women governors in the United States. You guessed it: 16 percent.

Maybe I’m simplifying things but could it be that there are fewer women in these positions because there are fewer women candidates for these positions? I have never once considered not voting for a candidate based on sex or race. It has always been about what the candidate stood for.

It would have been interesting had the author done some comparisons with the past. Are there more women in these positions now than in the past? Are the numbers growing? If so, at what rate? But, that wasn’t the intent of this chapter. Rather, the intent was to make women angry. Some of her attempts at accomplishing that were misleading. For instance, on page 13 and 14, she talks about women on Wall Street. Well, I’ll let you read the author’s own words:

“This last year has seen the departure of three of the street’s most prominent female executives in the shake-out from an uncertain financial climate where it seems only the men survive; Zoe Cruz, former co-president of Morgan Stanley; Sallie Krawcheck, chairman and CEO of Citigroup’s Global Wealth Management division; and Erin Callan, Lehman Brothers Holdings’ chief financial officer, have all lost their jobs.”

I’m not sure what happened to Zoe Cruz, but Sallie Krawcheck is now with Bank of America and Erin Callan took a position with Credit Suisse. Ms. Callan’s days at Lehman would have been limited because the company ended up going bankrupt last fall. Oh, and not only the men survived. Lots of male executives lost their jobs.

With chapter 2 out of the way, the book takes a more positive tone. The author tells women that instead of getting angry, they should aim to get rich. She then goes on to describe what’s going on in the world that makes it look like the tables are turning in favor of women.

Personally, I thought the most entertaining part of the book was the authors discussion of social media. She gives a nice rundown of both Twitter and Facebook. I have a Twitter account but never use it. I have decided to give Twitter more attention after reading Ms. Levine’s thoughts on the service.

What this book lacked was flow. I was reminded of Seinfeld’s “show about nothing” as I was reading this book. Yes there were a few good thoughts but the bulk of the book was either a complaint about modern society or was a hodge podge of unconnected thoughts. I think more attention to linking everything together would have served the reader better and made this a worthwhile book.

Those are my thoughts. Now we’ll see what Beth has to say.

Stay tuned…

*Affliliate Link

Okay, I’m really excited about this giveaway. My friend, Larry Winget, has agreed to send one AFM reader a signed copy of his latest book, No Time for Tact: 365 Days of the Wit, Words, and Wisdom of Larry Winget*. This is a cool little book.

At Larry’s prodding in his introduction to the book, I went to October 15th (my birthday) and this is what it said:

Anyway, if you would like a chance to win a copy of “No Time for Tact,” leave a comment below. And yes, once again, please remember my two rules:

1. You must be a resident of the U.S.A. or Canada (I won’t ship internationally).

and…

2. You can only enter once.

Good luck!

I have an extra copy of Bill Schultheis’ excellent book, The New Coffeehouse Investor* to give away today.

This is one of my favorite basic investing books. It’s written in an easy-to-understand format but is deep enough that people will have a pretty good idea as to the basics of investing after they read the book.

So feel free to enter the giveaway. Just remember my two rules:

1. You must be a resident of the U.S. or Canada (I WILL NOT ship internationally).

and…

2. You can only enter the contest ONCE.

*Affiliate Link

I’ll announce today’s giveaway in a bit. Stay tuned…

I liked the book but found some of the advice a little simplistic. For example, the author talks about building wealth through real estate. He suggests buying your first house with a 15 year mortgage. Then when it’s paid off, borrowing again to buy another house to rent out, using the rent payment and the money that was used to pay the old mortgage payment to put towards the new mortgage. Then once that’s paid off, buy another rental house and so on… While the advice isn’t necessarily bad (or good), the details are slim and he left out important considerations like interest rates, housing prices, etc. Granted, that wasn’t what the book was about but I would have preferred more detail.

Another knock against the book are the illustrations, which are cheesy-looking. The author should have spent some money and hired a professional illustrator.

All that said, it’s still a good book. I agreed with most of what the author said (and he said a lot!).

If you are interested in reading the book, leave a comment below and I’ll enter you in the giveaway. The winner will be announced tomorrow morning. All I ask is that you remember my two rules regarding giveaways:

1. You must be a resident of the U.S. or Canada (I WILL NOT ship internationally).

and…

2. You can only enter the contest ONCE.

Good luck.

*Affiliate Link