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Maxed Out, a new documnentary on the dark side of the debt industry, opens today in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, D.C., and other cities. I haven’t seen the film, which is getting good reviews, but I just reviewed the companion book written by the director, James Scurlock, in our current issue. It’s a good read—it feels wrong to describe a book like this as entertaining, but it’s a surprisingly readable look at how the financial industry is taking millions of Americans for an expensive ride. It’s packed with disturbing tidbits like this: Low credit card balances actually hurt your credit rating, and if you’re one of the lucky few who can pay off your bills each month, you’re what’s known in the biz as a “deadbeat.”
