Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc. - How the Working Poor Became Big Business

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Overview

For most people, the Great Crash of 2008 has meant troubling times. Not so for those in the flourishing poverty industry. These mercenary entrepreneurs have taken advantage of an era of deregulation to devise high-priced products to sell to the credit-hungry working poor, including the instant tax refund and the payday loan. In the process they've created an industry larger than the casino business and have proved that pawnbrokers and check cashers, if they dream big enough, can grow very rich off those with thin wallets.

Broke, USA is Gary Rivlin's riveting report from the economic fringes. Timely, shocking, and powerful, it offers a much-needed look at why our country is in a financial mess and gives a voice to the millions of ordinary Americans left devastated in the wake of the economic collapse.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Journalist Rivlin (Fire on the Prairie) offers a superb exposé of the “poverty business”—the flock of companies that cater to (and prey on) the working poor. For people living paycheck to paycheck and sometimes falling behind with rent, car payments, and grocery bills, “fringe financing” and the ubiquitous Rent-A-Centers, Jackson Hewitt, payday lenders, pawnshops, and check cashers—may seem like their only safety net. These businesses may tout themselves as a necessary service and force for economic development in low-income communities, but Rivlin reveals their dark underbelly: punishing rates of interest and customer service reps explicitly trained to mislead customers who appear “gullible.” He delves into the effect of financial deregulation on “fringe financing,” predatory subprime lending, and the major players in this unsavory world, including Allan Jones, a debt collector, worth $200 million, and the activists and advocates like Bill Brennan who've faced them down in the courts. A timely, important, and deeply disturbing look at the cycle of debt of the nation's most vulnerable. (June)
Booklist (starred review)
“This is a powerful analysis, detailing how the financial sector has come to its current state of crisis and including personal stories of some among the millions of working Americans who have been exploited along the way.”
Fast Company
“Gary Rivlin rivets readers.”
Fortune
“[A] fascinating book.”
Publishers Weekly
“[Rivlin] offers a superb expose of the ‘poverty business’... A timely, important, and deeply disturbing look at the cycle of dept in the nation’s most vulnerable.”
Justin Moyer
…an exhaustive exposé of pawn shops, check-cashing rip-offs, payday loans, auto title loans, rent-to-own schemes, subprime mortgages and other "equity stripping" means of getting poor people into debt they can't carry, then taking their houses and cars while derivatives backed by those bad loans are sold to investors.
—The Washington Post
Megan Buskey
It's easy to lose one's bearings amid all the legislative fights activists have waged against this sector, but Rivlin is the consummate tour guide, quick with a memorable anecdote or telling statistic to engage even the most ­policy-averse reader.
—The New York Times

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780061733215
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 6/8/2010
  • Pages: 358
  • Product dimensions: 5.90 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 1.30 (d)

Meet the Author

Gary Rivlin
Gary Rivlin

Gary Rivlin is the author of Fire on the Prairie, Drive By (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), and The Plot to Get Bill Gates. A two-time Gerald Loeb Award winner, he has been a reporter for the New York Times, Chicago Reader, and other publications, and his articles have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Wired, and elsewhere.

Table of Contents

Prologue Tommy's Angel 1

One Check Cashers of the World Unite 21

Two The Birth of the Predatory Lender 36

Three Going Big 60

Four Confessions of a Subprime Lender 85

Five Freddie Rogers 104

Six The Great Payday Land Rush 116

Seven Subprime City 128

Eight An Appetite for Subprime 143

Nine "No Experience Necessary" 168

Ten Same Old Faces 186

Eleven The Great What-If 199

Twelve Public Enemy Number One 218

Thirteen Past Due 239

Fourteen Maximizing Share of Wallet 262

Fifteen Payday, the Sequel 274

Sixteen Dayton after Dark 288

Epilogue Borrowed Time 310

Notes on Sources 333

Acknowledgments 344

Index 347

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
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Sort by: Showing all of 13 Customer Reviews
  • Posted September 28, 2011

    BROKE USA

    This book should be mandatory reading for high school and college students. Should be read by all consumers.

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    Posted December 26, 2010

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