Why Goldman Sachs Is Lending to the Middle Class
ByIts online business Marcus aims to be a “teddy bear” rather than a “vampire squid.” But some borrowers end up in a hole they can’t get out of.
Kade Parker had never heard of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 2016, when a letter from the bank offering his wife a loan arrived at his house in Hornbeck, La. (population 480). The 27-year-old oil worker had recently taken a pay cut and needed to reduce his monthly credit card bills. After calling to make sure it wasn’t a scam, he says he took out a loan for around $15,000. “We were trying to move some money around, make it easier on us,” Parker says. “I told them the situation, they said no problem.” Then he got laid off, and a year and a half later he filed for bankruptcy, listing more than $135,000 in unsecured debt, including 10 credit cards and loans from online lenders SoFi, Prosper, and Affirm…
Why Goldman Sachs Is Lending to the Middle Class
