Confronting the Debt Culture

"By some estimates, payday loans topped $28 billion last year, and have doubled every year for the past five years. These numbers are really frightening."

-Sheila Bair, Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, April 19, 2007

Join the New America Foundation/Asset Building Program and the Institute for American Values for a timely conference on thrift and its increasingly important role in reducing and managing personal and societal debt. Speakers will discuss changing the debt culture, solutions to payday lending, and lessons from abroad.

For attendees who register through the New America website, the conference is free (otherwise it is $50). Your free registration through New America entitles you to:

• receive a copy of the report, For a New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture;
• participate in all sessions and attend the May 13 luncheon; and
• attend a reception at 5:00 p.m. on May 12 and preview the exhibit, Thrift: In Search of the Art of Living Well.

For more information and the conference agenda, please visit the conference website.

This conference is co-sponsored by Demos, the Institute for American Values, the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, the New America Foundation, Public Agenda, and the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture.

Participants

• The Hon. Jim Cooper (D-TN)
  Co-Chair, Congressional Savings & Ownership Caucus
  United States House of Representatives

• David Blankenhorn
  Founder and President
  Institute for American Values

• Ray Boshara
  Vice President, Domestic Policy Programs
  New America Foundation

• James Davison Hunter
  Executive Director, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture
  University of Virginia

• Tamara Draut
  Director, Economic Opportunity Program
  Demos

• Dr. John M. Templeton, Jr.
  Chairman and President
  John Templeton Foundation

• Ruth Wooden
  President
  Public Agenda