Secret_History_of_the_Credit_Card《信用卡秘史》
简述
社会科学类纪录片，PBS 频道 2004 年出品，是 PBS Frontline 系列其中之一。
封面
影片信息
官方网站
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/
影片原始规格:
- 中文片名 ：信用卡秘史
- 中文系列名：PBS 前线系列
- 英文片名 ：Secret History of the Credit Card
- 英文系列名：PBS Frontline
- 电视台 ：PBS
- 地区 ：美国
- 语言 ：英语
- 时长 ：约 56 分钟
- 版本 ：DVD
- 发行时间 ：2004
影片内容介绍
剧情简介
It’s one of the most wonderful times of the year for the banking industry’s most lucrative business: credit cards. In the coming weeks, millions of Americans will reach into their wallets and use plastic to buy an estimated $100 billion in holiday gifts. But at what cost? In “Secret History of the Credit Card,” FRONTLINE® and The New York Times join forces to investigate an industry few Americans fully understand. In this one-hour report, correspondent Lowell Bergman uncovers the techniques used by the industry to earn record profits and get consumers to take on more debt. “The almost magical convenience of plastic money is critical to our famously compulsive consumer economy,” Bergman says. “With more than 641 million credit cards in circulation and accounting for an estimated $1.5 trillion of consumer spending, the U.S. economy has clearly gone plastic.”
Millions of American families use their personal, general-purpose credit cards such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover to make ends meet; credit cards have been a discreet lifeline for families in financial straits. But other consumers, like actor and author Ben Stein, use plastic purely for convenience. While it would appear that Stein – who says he charges a small fortune every month on his credit cards – is the ideal customer, in reality, he is what some in the industry call a “deadbeat.” That’s because he pays his balance in full every month.
The industry’s most profitable customers, the ones being sought by creative marketing tactics, are the “revolvers:” the estimated 115 million Americans who carry monthly credit card debt.Ed Yingling, incoming president of the American Bankers Association, tells FRONTLINE that revolvers are “the sweet spot” of the banking industry. This “sweet spot” continues to grow as the average credit card debt among American households has more than doubled over the past decade. Today, the average family owes roughly $8,000 on their credit cards. This debt has helped generate record profits for the credit card industry – last year, more than $30 billion before taxes.
Some experts say the profitability of credit cards really began twenty-five years ago, when the banking industry successfully eliminated a critical restriction: the limit on the interest rate a lender can charge a borrower. Deregulation, coupled with a revolution in technology that enables the almost real-time tracking of personal financial information and the emergence of nationwide banking, has facilitated the widening availability of credit cards across the economic spectrum. But for some, the cost of credit is often far greater than it appears.
According to Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren, the credit card companies are misleading consumers and making up their own rules. “These guys have figured out the best way to compete is to put a smiley face in your commercials, a low introductory rate, and hire a team of MBAs to lay traps in the fine print,” Warren tells FRONTLINE.
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Category:片名 Category:PBS Category:PBS Frontline Category:2004 Category:5. 社会科学类 Category:5.1 社会 Category:5.14 舆论/议题 Category:5.3 财经 Category:5.31 微观经济 Category:6. 史地类 Category:6.1 历史 Category:6.118 二十一世纪 Category:6.2 地理 Category:6.24 美洲 Category:6.241 北美洲 Category:6.2417 美国 Category:缺翻译