The United States has two separate banking systems today?one serving the well-to-do and another exploiting everyone else. How the Other Half Banks contributes to the growing conversation on American inequality by highlighting one of its prime causes: unequal credit.
Mehrsa Baradaran examines how a significant portion of the population, deserted by banks, is forced to wander through a Wild West of payday lenders and check-cashing services to cover emergency expenses and pay for necessities?all thanks to deregulation that began in the 1970s and continues decades later.
In an age of corporate megabanks with trillions of dollars in assets, it is easy to forget that Americas banking system was originally created as a public service. Banks have always relied on credit from the federal government, provided on favorable terms so that they could issue low-interest loans. But as banks grew in size and political influence, they shed their social contract with the American people, demanding to be treated as a private industry free from any public-serving responsibility. They abandoned less profitable, low-income customers in favor of wealthier clients and high-yield investments. Fringe lenders stepped in to fill the void. This two-tier banking system has become even more unequal since the 2008 financial crisis.
Baradaran proposes a solution: reenlisting the US Post Office in its historic function of providing bank services. The post office played an important but largely forgotten role in the creation of American democracy, and it could be deployed again to level the field of financial opportunity.
The free-market, limited government development model has been an ecological and social disaster for the developing world. Sustainable and equitable development is only possible with the active involvement of a strong central state that can guide th...
This program includes a prologue and epilogue read by the author.Over the last generation, the United States has undergone seismic changes. Stable institutions have given way to frictionless transactions, which are celebrated no matter what collater...
For over 30% new material including many startling developments that have occurred in the past few years, check out The Real Crash Fully Revised and Updated Edition, on sale now. You might be thinking everything's okay: the stock market is on the ri...
America's unique prosperity is based on its creation of a middle class. In the twentieth century, that middle class provided the workforce, the educated skills, and the demand that gave life to the world's greatest consumer economy. It was innovativ...
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA business leader and esteemed economic thinker outlines simple solutions to America’s five most pressing public policy issues, from healthcare to education to inequality.America today confronts a host of u...
In the post-meltdown world, it is irresponsible, ineffective, and ultimately useless to have a serious economic debate without considering and challenging the role of the Federal Reserve. Most people think of the Fed as an indispensable institutio...
A groundbreaking examination of the growing inequality gap from the bestselling author of Bowling Alone: why fewer Americans today have the opportunity for upward mobility.It’s the American dream: get a good education, work hard, buy a house, ...
Wielding his widely recognized powers of explanation, Paul Krugman lays bare the hidden facts behind the $2 trillion tax cut.With huge budget surpluses just ahead, the question of whether to cut taxes has shifted to when? and by how much? With ...
From entrepreneur Andrew Yang, the founder of Venture for America, an eye-opening look at how new technologies are erasing millions of jobs before our eyes-and a rallying cry for the urgent steps America must take, including Universal Basic Inco...
{"id":"1421139","ean":"9781504743860","abr":"Unabridged","title":"How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy","subtitle":"Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy","author":"Mehrsa Baradaran","rating_average":"0","narrator":"Priya Ayyar","ubr_id":"1421139","abr_id":"0","ubr_price":"19.95","abr_price":"0.00","ubr_memprice":"12.97","abr_memprice":"0.00","ubr_narrator":"Priya Ayyar","abr_narrator":"","ubr_length":"Unabridged: 9 hr 10 min","abr_length":"Abridged: "}
