Robert D. Manning

Robert D. Manning is Research Fellow at the Filene Institute, past Director of the Center for Consumer Financial Services at Rochester Institute of Technology, and founder of the Responsible Debt Relief Institute.

Author of the widely acclaimed Credit Card Nation (Basic Books, 2000), which received the 2001 Robert Ezra Park Award for Outstanding Contribution to Sociological Practice, Dr. Manning is a specialist in consumer finance, financial education, retail banking deregulation, race and ethnic studies, and globalization. His collaboration with Michael Hudson, "Banking on Misery," received the prestigious 2003 George K. Polk Award for investigative journalism and the 2004 Harry Chapin Award for Poverty Research while his groundbreaking study, "Credit Cards on Campus," received the 2000 Morris Rosenberg Research Award from the District of Columbia Sociology Society. His monograph, "Living with Debt," was published by LendingTree.com in October 2005. Most recently, Dr. Manning was honored by the Case Western School of Law as the 2006 Frank J. Battisti Memorial Lecturer for Outstanding Contributions to the Law and Public Policy.

A frequently invited expert at US Congressional Committee hearings (US Senate Banking, Judiciary, US House Financial Services), Professor Manning's research has influenced public policy debate on consumer debt in the US and several countries including Canada, the UK, India, China, and Australia. Currently, he is involved in developing national financial literacy programs for college students, community-based alternatives to high cost rent-to-own stores, and an informal bankruptcy option for consumers whom seek to retain their homes. Dr. Manning is also co-organizer of the national Fair and Responsible Lending campaign which seeks to mobilize grassroots coalitions to reform the consumer lending/debt collection industries. He also has served as an expert witness/consultant in many federal, class-action, and civil suits on behalf of consumer borrowing rights.

A provocative documentary based on his research of the credit card industry, In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Bursts, was released in spring 2007. He is currently writing a book on the global expansion of consumer credit and debt, tentatively entitled Credit Card World. Dr. Manning also operates a popular website, CreditCardNation.com, which includes research, public policy analyses, and educational programs.

Dr. Manning's research has been widely featured through US and international media, including 60 Minutes II, ABC World News, ABC Evening News with Peter Jennings, Good Morning America, Bloomberg Financial News, CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, CNN Headline News, FOX Evening News, The O'Reilly Factor, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, NPR, Australian Public Radio, British Broadcast Corporation, Canadian Public Radio, Reuters International, and Swedish Public Radio. His research has also been extensively cited or quoted in numerous publications.

Dr. Manning is a past Fulbright Lecturer to Mexico and is a specialist in comparative economic development and race/ethnic relations. He received his PhD from The Johns Hopkins University, MA from Northern Illinois University, and BA from Duke University. His work on globalization and human rights is accessible at the Gannett Lecture Series website, published as "Globalization and Democracy: American Leadership or Autocracy in the New World Order?"