Would You Name a Bank Trustee if it “Maxed Out” Your Kids?

Banks, especially big banks, don't get much good press. Today is no exception, as you'll see from The Washington Post's review of “Maxed Out:”

Maxed Out," a film about the consumer debt crisis, might as well be ripped from the headlines, in light of last week's stock market plunge (blamed in part on too many mortgages sold to high-risk home buyers). But here's the man-bites-dog part: This factoid-filled, talking-heads documentary -- by a business school graduate -- turns out to be amusing. And enlightening. And positively riveting.

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"Maxed Out," often uses grim humor to deliver the bad news: that banks routinely seek out the young, poor and chronically late-paying; that they're in cahoots with other powerful forces in government and business (such as the burgeoning field of debt collection); and that no one -- especially lawmakers whose biggest contributors come from the financial services industry -- seems to care. Particularly galling in this respect is Julie Williams, the acting U.S. comptroller of the currency and chief bank regulator, who delivers Orwellian apologies for the industry she's supposed to be overseeing. . . .