One of the near-universal experiences of American life today is personal debt. At a time when personal savings are actually negative, personal debt has risen by 262% since 1980—since 2000 alone, from 96 percent of disposable income to 126 percent, a record high. Credit cards are one of the leading causes for this rise in personal debt, with Americans owing some $813 billion in credit card debt. Today, 144 million Americans have credit cards, and the typical household has twelve of them. Sixty percent of households with credit cards—about 90 million Americans—do not pay their full outstanding balances regularly. Not surprisingly, the companies that finance credit card debt are reporting record profits.

Maxed Out shows how the modern financial industry really works, explains the true definition of "preferred customer" and tells us why the poor are getting poorer and the rich getting richer. By turns hilarious and profoundly disturbing, Maxed Out paints a picture of a national nightmare which is all too real for most of us. Maxed Out won critical acclaim at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas in March, and Simon & Schuster plans to publish a memoir based on Director James Scurlock's interviews and travels during the making of the film next year. Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post, calls Maxed Out a “riveting examination of America’s debt problem.” Sally Foster of Film Threat says that “Maxed Out is a skillful intertwining of facts, interviews and vignettes, ultimately coming together to form a picture of our country’s current financial state.”

Please join us for a provocative panel discussion and Q&A session immediately following the film.

from left: Moderator Anna Soellner, Derek Douglas, Gloria Sweringa, Professor Elizabeth Warren, Congressman Jim Cooper, Director and Producer James Scurlock

Featured Panelists:
Congressman Jim Cooper, 5th District of Tennessee
James D. Scurlock, Director and Producer, Maxed Out
Derek Douglas, Associate Director for Economic Policy, Center for American Progress
Professor Elizabeth Warren, Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law, Harvard University
Gloria Sweringa, Chairperson, Maryland ACORN

Moderated by:
Anna Soellner, Director of Outreach and Special Events, Center for American Progress

Wednesday, July 19, 2006 Doors open at 6:30 PM. Screening starts at 7:00 PM sharp Admission is free

Landmark E Street Cinema 555 11th Street NW Washington, DC 20004 Map & Directions

Video

• Debt Matters: Raising the Profile of Household Debt in America
• Intro: Anna Soellner
• Panel Discussion
• Panel Q and A

Note: All video provided in QuickTime (MPEG-4) format.

Biographies

Congressman Jim Cooper is an attorney, investment banker and health policy professor at Vanderbilt University. He has served in Congress for 16 years, representing Nashville, and serves on the Budget and Armed Services Committees. He is also the co-chair for policy for the Congressional Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 37 fiscally conservative Democrats, and the founding co-chair of the Congressional Savings and Ownership Caucus. The Caucus recently succeeded in persuading the IRS to allow tax refunds to be directly deposited into multiple accounts, including savings and 401(k)s. Studies show that allowing split refunds improves personal savings rates, particularly among low-income filers.

James D. Scurlock attended the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania from 1989-1993 as an undergraduate and has no formal film training. An entrepreneur since his sophomore year in college, James opened several successful restaurants which he later sold. He has also contributed as a freelance writer to several magazines and newspapers. Maxed Out is his second feature documentary.

Derek Douglas is the Associate Director for Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress. At the Center, Derek also serves as Director of the Economic Mobility Program, which focuses on issues that bear directly on the economic security and social mobility of low- and middle-income families - such as debt, higher education, and housing. Prior to joining the Center, Derek was Counsel in the Strategic Counseling Practice Group at O'Melveny & Myers LLP, where he advised clients on matters with a close nexus to politics, legislation or regulation. In this capacity, Derek worked with members of Congress, administration officials, and their respective staffs in advising clients on matters involving congressional hearings and investigations, federal and state legislative developments, and international and federal regulatory enforcement issues. Before joining O'Melveny, Derek was an Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), where he specialized in the area of education. Derek also developed and directed legislative and community outreach efforts in support of his litigation. Derek joined LDF by way of a Skadden Fellowship, which is a public interest fellowship given each year to 25 law school graduates throughout the country. Derek graduated from the University of Michigan with Highest Honors in Economics and from the Yale Law School. After graduating from Yale, Derek clerked for the Honorable Timothy K. Lewis on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Derek also worked in the Economic Studies Program at The Brookings Institution as a Research Assistant to Dr. Charles Schultze.

Professor Elizabeth Warren is the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard University. She has written more than a hundred books, book chapters, reports, and scholarly articles on a range of commercial law topics, and she is a principal investigator of a number of empirical studies on the bankruptcy system. Her latest book, All Your Worth, talks with a wide audience about money; it was listed on both the Wall Street Journal business book best-seller list and the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list. Her earlier book, The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents Are Going Broke, has been the subject of reviews and new stories from Time and Newsweek to Dr. Phil, and it continues to be quoted on the floor of the Senate and by presidential candidates. Other books include The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt and As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Law in America, both written with co-authors Dr. Teresa Sullivan and Professor Jay Westbrook. Professor Warren was Reporter to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission, completing a 1,100-page report to Congress on recommendations for improvements in the bankruptcy system. She served by appointment of Chief Justice Rehnquist as a member of the Judicial Education Committee of the Federal Judicial Center from 1990-1999. Professor Warren has served as Vice-President of the American Law Institute, and she currently serves on the Executive Boards of the National Bankruptcy Conference. The National Law Journal named Professor Warren as one of the Fifty Most Influential Women Attorneys in America.

Gloria Sweringa is the chairperson of Maryland ACORN, which has offices in Prince George's County, Baltimore County, and Balimore City, and sits on ACORN's national board. Ms. Sweringa first contacted ACORN regarding her own predatory mortgage, but quickly became involved as a leader in ACORN's work for financial justice. Ms. Sweringa, who has been visually impaired since birth, is a minister at the First Baptist Church in Glenarden, Maryland. She has been a longtime community advocate for children in foster care and adoption and has raised 22 children herself.

Anna Soellner is the director of outreach and special events for the Center for American Progress. She also directs cultural programs at the Center including the Reel Progress program. She served in the office of Martin Lee, chairman of the Hong Kong Democratic Party, where she was a Henry Luce Foundation Scholar. In that capacity, Anna was the foreign media liaison and assisted in developing party relations with foreign governments and NGOs to promote democracy and rule of law in Hong Kong. Before leaving for Hong Kong, Anna worked in the Office of Legislative Affairs and Public Liaison at the U.S. Treasury Department and for Senator Feinstein in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.