After decades of unchecked influence creep, credit scores–a pseudo-scientific amalgam of risk factors calculated by a handful of private companies–now impact virtually every aspect of modern life, often for the worst.
This opaque, three-digit scale was conceived as a race-neutral, data-driven measurement of a person's creditworthiness. Today, it’s the financial fingerprint used by lenders to assess the risk of default, by employers to evaluate the reliability of job applicants, by landlords to screen tenants, and by insurers and utilities to set rates. Your credit score is the shadow you never asked for and can't outrun.
