Maxed Out
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Are we about to see a trend reversal in reality television shows from the likes of Flip This House to Maxed Out? I have not seen Maxed Out but I am positive it will be a welcome change over the current financial wizardry garbage telling everyone years too late how to make a fortune off a trend well past its peak and now dieing. Face the facts: flipping and flippers are now "burnt toast".
Meet Aurora--she's 21 and already $80,000 in debt. Can she put the manicures on hold and give herself a fresh financial start?If Maxed Out takes off, especially if other similar television shows follow, just might mark a significant turning point in consumer credit aversion. Consumer psychology does not turn on a dime and this is a start. Every trend change starts somewhere and it is high time consumers tell credit card companies exactly where to go. You know it, I know it, and everyone in debt knows it.
Kathleen is a single mother earning $37,000 a year. Can she dig herself out of debt and give her children the security they deserve?
In each episode of Maxed Out, finance coach Ayse Hogan gets to the root of what is causing one woman's unhealthy relationship with money. Observing the subject's behavior and putting her on a strict budget, Hogan helps the cash-stressed gal by demonstrating the basic tenets of wealth-building: debt reduction, savings and investment.
This show is yet another small sign of the change away from consumption and risk towards savings an risk aversion. The signs are adding up. Can it be that sometime soon individuals will no longer be bragging about how much their house is worth or how many condos they have to how much of their income they are putting away in T-Bills?
No doubt some (many) of you will find the idea preposterous, but the supertanker of risk (at least from the consumer side) has already turned. Once turned, supertankers are very difficult to turn again. The fat cats on Wall Street with their leveraged buyouts and stock buybacks and enormous bonuses are simply too busy giving each other high fives to have noticed the change in direction. The combination of those last two sentences will turn out to be Bernanke's worst nightmare.
Mike Shedlock / Mish
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/
