Avoiding the Pitfalls of Credit Card Debt

Creating a Fair Credit Card Market for Every American

February 25, 2008, 10:00am – 11:30am

About This Event

The U.S. credit card market is showing signs of trouble just as the home mortgage foreclosure crisis surges to unprecedented heights across the United States and throughout the global financial marketplace. As borrowing in the mortgage market slows, credit card borrowing is rapidly accelerating. In the end, borrowers who are solicited to take out a new credit card on terms they do not fully understand could end up defaulting on their credit cards. Just as consumers defaulted on subprime mortgages, credit card defaults could add additional turmoil in financial markets and the economy. These problems can be nipped in the bud by creating a fairer credit card market for consumers so they can use credit wisely. With more control of their credit card accounts, borrowers will be better able to avoid the downward spiral into default.

We invite you to join us as Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) speaks about his bill that will create a five-star safety rating system for credit cards, followed by a discussion where experts share steps needed to inform Americans about the best credit card options. Panelists include a representative of the credit card industry and of government regulators of credit cards, as well as the perspective of credit card users. The event will feature the release of the paper "House of Cards," authored by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, to provide background of how increased credit card debt could lead to a deeper credit crunch.

Keynote Address:
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Introduction:
Winnie Stachelberg, Senior Vice President for External Affairs, Center for American Progress Action Fund

Featured Panelists:
Leonard Chanin, Associate Director, Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, Federal Reserve Board
Tamara Draut, Director of the Economic Opportunity Program, Demos USA, and author of Strapped: Why America's 20- And 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead
Jonathan M. Orszag, Senior Managing Director, Compass Lexecon

Moderated by:
Christian E. Weller, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress Action Fund

 

Location

Center for American Progress Action Fund
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

Resources

Report: House of Cards: Consumers Turn to Credit Cards Amid the Mortgage Crisis, Delaying Inevitable Defaults

Watch Event Video:

Listen to the Events:

Biographies

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) Ron Wyden was first elected to Congress in 1980 to represent Oregon's 3rd District. In 1996, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in a special election, becoming the first U.S. Senator to be elected in a vote-by-mail election. He was sworn in on February 5, 1996, to the seat once held by his mentor, U.S. Senator Wayne Morse. Elected to his second full term in 2004, Senator Wyden received more votes – over 1.1 million – than any other candidate for office in Oregon’s history.

Born in 1949 in Wichita, Kansas, Senator Wyden attended the University of California at Santa Barbra on a basketball scholarship. He later earned a B.A degree with distinction from Stanford University and received a J.D. degree from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1974. Following law school, he taught gerontology and co-founded the Oregon chapter of the Gray Panthers, an advocacy group for the elderly. He also served as the director of the Oregon Legal Services for the Elderly from 1977 to 1979 and as a member of the Oregon State Board of Examiners of Nursing Home Administrators during that same time period.

In the U.S. Senate, Senator Wyden serves on the following committees: Finance, Intelligence, Aging, Budget, and Energy and Natural Resources. On the Energy Committee, he chairs the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests.

Senator Wyden's home is in Portland. He is married to Nancy Wyden, whom he wed in September 2005. He and Nancy are the parents of William and Ava Wyden. Senator Wyden has two children, Adam and Lilly, from a previous marriage.

Leonard Chanin is Associate Director in the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs at the Federal Reserve Board. He is responsible for implementing and interpreting several federal consumer protection laws such as the Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z), Electronic Fund Transfer Act (Regulation E), Equal Credit Opportunity Act (Regulation B), Truth in Savings Act (Regulation DD), and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Mr. Chanin joined the Board in 2005.

From 1999 to 2005, Leonard Chanin was in the Financial Services practice group in the Washington, D.C. office of Morrison and Foerster. Prior to working with Morrison and Foerster, Mr. Chanin worked at the Federal Reserve Board from 1985 to 1999.

Mr. Chanin received his B.A. from American University in 1979. He received his J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1984. Mr. Chanin is a member of the Georgia and District of Columbia bars.

Tamara Draut oversees Demos' research, policy and advocacy work on issues related to economic security and mobility. She is the author of Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead published by Doubleday in 2006. Her research focuses on the growing debt burdens facing low- and middle-income households, and more broadly the challenges confronting households trying to work or educate their way into the middle class. Tamara is co-author of the recent Demos reports, "The Plastic Safety Net: The Reality Behind Debt in America", "Millions to the Middle: Three Strategies to Grow the Middle Class," "Retiring in the Red: The Growth of Debt Among Older Americans," and "Borrowing to Make Ends Meet: The Growth of Credit Card Debt in the 90s," among others. Tamara's research has been covered extensively by dozens of newspapers and magazines including the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. Her writing has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, and The Boston Review. She is a frequent television commentator and has appeared on the Today Show, ABC World News Tonight, CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight and Fox News. Tamara holds an M.P.A. from Columbia University and a B.S.J. from Ohio University.

Jonathan Orszag is a Senior Managing Director and a member of the Executive Committee of Compass Lexecon. As a consultant, Mr. Orszag has conducted economic and financial analysis on a wide range of complex issues in antitrust, regulatory, policy, and litigation matters for corporations and public-sector entities. In 2004, Mr. Orszag was named by the Global Competition Review as the youngest member of "the world's 40 brightest young antitrust lawyers and economists" in its "40 under 40" survey. Prior to entering the private sector, Mr. Orszag served as the Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Director of the Office of Policy and Strategic Planning and Economic Policy Advisor on President Clinton’s National Economic Council. In 1999, the Corporation for Enterprise Development awarded Mr. Orszag its leadership award for "forging innovative public policies to expand economic opportunity in America."

Mr. Orszag is a Fellow at the University of Southern California's Center for Communication Law & Policy and has served as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Southern California's School of Policy, Planning, and Development. Mr. Orszag received a M.Sc. from Oxford University, which he attended as a Marshall Scholar. He graduated summa cum laude in economics from Princeton University, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and was named a USA Today Academic All-American. He is also a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy.

Winnie Stachelberg is the Senior Vice President for External Affairs. Prior to joining the Action Fund, she spent 11 years with the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay civil rights organization.

In January 2005 Stachelberg was appointed to the newly created position of Vice President of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Charged with revamping HRC's Foundation, Stachelberg's early priorities included building a think tank, launching a religion and faith program and rebuilding the National Coming Out Project.

Before joining HRC, Stachelberg worked at the Office of Management and Budget in both the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations, formulating and reviewing health care policies and budgets for the Department of Health and Human Services. A native New Yorker, Stachelberg taught at George Washington High School after graduating Georgetown University. She received a Master of Public Administration from George Washington University.

Dr. Christian E. Weller is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and an associate professor of public policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His expertise is in the area of retirement income security, macroeconomics, money and banking, and international finance. He is also a research scholar at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Prior to joining the Action Fund, he was on the research staff at the Economic Policy Institute, where he remains a research associate. Dr. Weller has also worked at the Center for European Integration Studies at the University of Bonn in Germany, under the Department of Public Policy of the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., and in banking in Germany, Belgium, and Poland. Dr. Weller is a respected academic with more than 100 academic and popular publications. His academic publications have appeared in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Journal of Development Studies, the Cambridge Journal of Economics, the Journal of International Business Studies, the Journal of Aging and Social Policy, and the Journal of Economic Issues, among others. His popular writings have been published in the New York Times, USA Today, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. He is the co-author (with E. Wolff) of Retirement Income: The Crucial Role of Social Security (Washington: Economic Policy Institute, 2005) and co-editor (with T. Ghilarducci) of Employee Pensions: Policies, Problems and Possibilities (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007). In 2006, he was awarded the Outstanding Scholar-Practitioner Award from the Labor and Employment Relations Association. In 2007, he was elected to the board of the Labor and Employment Relations Association, one of the country’s largest associations for professionals in the fields of labor and employment relations. His work is frequently cited in the press and he is often a guest on national TV and radio programs. Dr. Weller holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.