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| Author | Jake Halpern |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Publication date | 2014 |
Bad Paper: Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld is a 2014 nonfiction book byJake Halpern.[1] The book explores thedebt buying anddebt collection industry in the United States. It focuses on two debt collectors, formerBank of America wealth manager Aaron Siegel and his associate Brandon Wilson, a former bank robber.[2]
Kirkus Reviews wrote that "Halpern’s story of the debt collection world is also a dramatic rise-and-fall tale that traces the anything-goes heyday of debt collecting businesses in the unregulated early 2000s and how it has changed with the consequential recent Obama-era crackdowns on the shadier practices in the field."[3] Writing forMinnesota Star Tribune, Stephen J. Lyons described the book as "a seamlessly told page-turner that takes readers through the world of debt chasing, a world where there are no hard-and-fast rules, and where fortunes can be made through guile and street hustle."[4]
Colin Dwyer ofNPR gave the book a mixed review, writing that "Halpern struggles to decide what exactly he'd like his book to be — splitting his weight between a character study and a straight-up expose — before finally abandoning the narrative in order to just follow where the debt leads. Despite his attempts to ease these transitions, they remain abrupt, a strain on the thread holding the book's jumble of anecdotes and set pieces together."[5]