Program Directory

 
City Club of Cleveland - Guest Robert D. Manning, PhD
 
 
 
After the Financial Services Revolution: Banking Deregulation, Bankruptcy Reform, and the Consumer Debt Crisis
Robert D. Manning, PhD
Director of the Center for Consumer Financial Services at RIT and Author of Credit Card Nation


Robert Manning, a research professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, will speak about the economic, political, and cultural impacts of the global expansion of consumer credit and debt.

Author of "Credit Card Nation: America's Dangerous Addiction to Credit," Manning is a specialist in the deregulation of retail banking, consumer finance, comparative economic development, immigration, and globalization. His study, Living with Debt, was published by LendingTree.com, and the 2006 documentary, In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Burst, is largely based on his research on U.S. banking deregulation

Manning's collaboration with Michael Hudson, Southern Exposure's special issue on "Banking on Misery," received the 2004 George K. Polk Award for investigative journalism and the 2004 Harry Chapin Award for Poverty Research. His "Credit Cards on Campus" received the 2000 Morris Rosenberg Research Award and has led to numerous federal and state legislative initiatives including the College Student Credit Card Protection Act.

A frequently invited expert before U.S. Congressional Committees, Manning's research has influenced public policy debate in the US and other countries including Canada, UK, Korea, and Australia. Most recently, Manning testified against the Bankruptcy Reform Act and on behalf of regulatory reform of the credit card industry. Currently, he is involved in developing national financial literacy programs for college students, community-based alternatives to high cost rent-to-own stores and payday lenders, and an informal bankruptcy program for consumers seeking to retain their homes.

Manning's research has been widely reported in the U.S. and international media, including ABC, Bloomberg Financial News, CBS, CNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox, MSNBC, PBS, NPR, Australian Public Radio, BBC, Canadian Public Radio, Reuters International, and Swedish Public Radio. In collaboration with the Frank J. Battisti Memorial Lecture Series at CWRU.
February 12, 2007