Getting to Know Suze

Last spring, during our Debtor World conference here at the University of Illinois, it was a pleasure to get to know James Scurlock, the director/producer/writer of Maxed Out. If you have not see the movie, now is a good time. WIth the credit crisis now crashing down, Scurlock has to at least be a nominee in the "I Saw It Coming" category. Scurlock has a column at Slate entitled, "If You Suze Like We Knew Suze, You Wouldn't Listen to Her Advice." Check it out.

Suze Orman's defenders have risen to her defense in the comments to Scurlock's column, slamming Scurlock for daring to question her. Scurlock started his column with an Orman quote: "'Tell me what I need to know,' people often say to me. 'Here is what you need to know,' I answer." My sense is that Orman doesn't sell financial advice as much as she sells a sense of security. Scurlock's column tells people that Orman may not have all the answers, and one of the surest ways to incur someone's scorn is to tell them the world is a more complicated place than he or she would like to believe.

Comments

[Patches]

Here is his story on MSN Money:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/RetirementandWills/CreateaPlan/stop-listening-to-suze-orman.aspx

[Christian Debt Consolidation]

Interesting info about Suze Orman. Thanks.

[Blurtman]

Suze Orman was a huge endorser of the AIG bailouts. What a disaster that has turned out to be. She is a total hack.

[Custom PHP]

From what I know of Suze Orman I would say she teaches common sense. I've always found it interesting that she can give people no-brainer advise and she has made a living out of it.

A friend of mine told me he is trying to save more by eating out less because that is what Suze Orman said people should do. I've been eating out less all my life. It just makes sense.

[AMC]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1883381,00.html

Suze Orman: Queen of the Crisis

By Sheelah Kolhatkar for TIME Magazine
Thursday, Mar. 05, 2009

"I'm very, very sorry to say that my business is skyrocketing," the personal-finance guru Suze Orman said one late January afternoon. The Dow was down almost 200 points, and Orman was lounging on the terrace of her San Francisco town house, wearing a leopard-print tunic and cowboy boots. She looked up and popped a grape into her mouth. "This is happening because of the lies and deceit and greed of Wall Street, the mortgage companies, the SEC, the Administration," she said, growing agitated. Her outlook on the economy is practically apocalyptic: Millions more jobs will be lost, the stock market will probably continue to drop, and things won't start to get better until 2015. "Shysters! They're all shysters!" she said. "I have said it over and over and over again."