A Tiny Lender Sorts Through the Wreckage of Americans' Finances - WSJ - 0 views
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Many Americans have spent years barely getting by—going deep into debt to afford their homes, cars and other necessities. Nearly one-quarter of Americans had no money socked away for a rainy day heading into the coronavirus pandemic, and less than half had more emergency savings than credit-card debt, according to surveys from Bankrate.com.
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For Mr. Posner, the crisis has exposed a weakness in the U.S. financial system: the overextended U.S. consumer. A debt burden that seemed manageable when everyone had a job became unbearable in a matter of weeks. Many of those obligations are on hold for now. In the meantime, jobless Americans are falling further behind.
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He had always thought of Capital Good Fund as a place people could come to improve their finances. But lately it was akin to a food bank, doling out small loans that—like a bag of groceries—wouldn’t go very far in a crisis whose effects could linger for years.
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“The nonprofit system was never capable of solving all of the problems that we have,” he said. “But at this point it is starting to seem almost futile.”