In the USA, in the aftermath of its Great Recession, much discussion has occurred about household and government debt and their ongoing role in a stagnant economic recovery. The media and the public have largely focused on government, big banks or the financial behaviour of people. In US psychology, often a largely uncritical discipline, there has been little beyond silence. Most debate about causes and consequences is too often framed from an individualistic perspective that focuses on personal behaviour without acknowledging the systemic drivers and the broader political economy of debt. The growing trade of psychologists who shape their own professional product around financial, one-on-one or group therapy represents the same, pitfall-filled lens. This individualistic framing effectively limits policy prescriptions and avoids addressing growing income and wealth inequality — inextricably linked to household debt — which has risen even more sharply following the Great Recession (Kochhar et al., 2011; Stiglitz, 2012).