Bad paper
Subtitle: chasing debt from Wall Street to the underworld
By: Jake Halpern
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9780374108236
Subjects: Collection agencies; Consumer credit; Personal Finance; Collecting of accounts
Description: "A trip to the underworld of debt collection, where bankers team up with ex-burglars and few rules apply Bad Paper is a riveting expose;, a moving story of an unlikely friendship, and a gritty narrative of how scrappy entrepreneurs profit from our debts. Jake Halpern introduces us to a former banking executive and a former armed robber who become partners and go in quest of "paper"--the uncollected debts that are sold off by banks for pennies on the dollar. As Halpern shows, the world of consumer debt collection is a wild and unregulated shadowland, where operators may misrepresent a debtor's situation, make illegal threats, and even lay claim to debts that are not theirs to collect in the first place. It is a realm of indelible individuals who possess a swagger and vocabulary that even David Mamet could not invent. Halpern follows his collectors as they intimidate competitors with weapons, manage high-pressure call centers, and scheme new ways to benefit from American's debt-industrial complex. He also explores the history of collection agencies and reveals the human cost of a system that leaves hardworking Americans with little opportunity to retire their debts in a reasonable way. The result is a bravura work of storytelling that is also an important consciousness-raiser"--

"Frequent New Yorker contributor Jake Halpern investigates the shadowy, unregulated world of consumer debt collection, focusing on an unlikely friendship between a former banking executive and former armed robber who go in search of "paper," spreadsheets of uncollected debt sold off by banks for pennies on the dollar"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-237).
Table of contents: title: Stolen numbers. The $14 million gamble ; The king of crap ; The package ; Bad paper; title: Paper numbers. Aaron's problem ; Brandon's people ; Scoring in Vegas; title: The last collections. Taking control of assets ; The white man's dope ; Georgia.