Wallet Watch

Yesterday, the Washington Post’s personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary published an interview with Barack Obama about fixes to consumer debt. As Ms. Singletary discovers, the candidate and his family know firsthand about the struggles of Americans dealing with high consumer debt and student loan debt: until Mr. Obama published his two books, the family was deep in debt themselves. While Mr. Obama mentions no particulars of his proposals in the interview — although he’s mentioned a five star safety rating system for credit cards in the past — one grets the impression that he’s ready to act.

Notably, Mr. McCain turned down Ms. Singletary’s multiple requests for an interview.

Ms. Singletary’s article is here, but here’s the poignant excerpt:

Obama ticked off a list of his proposed economic fixes: another stimulus package, a universal health-care plan and tax cuts for the middle class.

When discussing consumer debt, Obama had a story to tell that was similar in some respects to that of many people in the country:

Until a few years ago, the candidate and his wife, Michelle, were deep in debt. Together, they were carrying $120,000 in student loans they had taken on to pay for law school.

“We were making payments the size of a mortgage every month,” Obama said.

Although Obama acknowledged that he and his wife were blessed to have enough income to service that debt, it wasn’t until he wrote two best-selling books, “Dreams From My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope,” that the couple were able to pay it all off.

Were he to become president, Obama said he would initiate reforms to address “the whole debt industry that has really got people in a financial hole they never dig themselves out of.”

I believe that when Obama talks about his family’s situation, he gets that we must move away from an economy driven by debt-laden consumers.

Nonetheless, the problems are so large and the changes needed to correct them are so deep and far-reaching — requiring legislative reforms and shifts in people’s financial behavior — that even a self-proclaimed change-agent president would be sharply tested on this issue.