Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc.—How the Working Poor Became Big Business
By Gary Rivlin
3.5/5
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About this ebook
Gary Rivlin
Gary Rivlin is a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter and the author of nine books, including Katrina: After the Flood. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, Fortune, GQ, and Wired, among other publications. He is a two-time Gerald Loeb Award winner and former reporter for the New York Times. He lives in New York with his wife, theater director Daisy Walker, and two sons.
Read more from Gary Rivlin
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Reviews for Broke, USA
40 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Interesting expose of the way various descendants of the pawnshop, such as payday advance, check cashing, prepay credit cards etc. developed and how little has been done to actually control or limit them. Also, how subprime mortgage and home equity businesses developed and what's driving them to continue. Gets a little repetitive and focuses a little too much on personalities for my taste, but definitely worth browsing through.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A brief history of the business of poverty; who makes money, how it is made, and what the effects of that business are on individuals, businesses, communities, and government. If you've ever wondered who uses the (now ubiquitous) payday loan outlets, why anyone would sign a bad loan agreement, and why regulating predatory lending is so difficult, this book will answer those questions and more.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Interesting, if you're into reading about financial drudgery. Once I got through the first section with, admittedly, the shock factor of predatory loaning, my interest ran out.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is a great recent history on financial gains made from the impoverished, from payday lending, tax preparation to subprime mortgage and credit lending. It details the consequences of instant financial gratification and reveals some of the motivation behind why a consumer would subject themselves to such consequences. Regardless of the reader's income level, this book will make the reader a more aware consumer. The overall lesson, from the consumer's perspective: the majority of lenders are not on the side of the consumer.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A long hard look at predatory lending, it's strategies, consequences and the people that fight it. Checking cashing, pay day loans, subprime morgages, refund anticipation loans, pawnshop loans, rent to own-- it is staggering the number of ways persons of few scruples have found to extract large profits in exchange for dodgy if not downright poisonous "financial services". Rivlin's focus is on the personal consequences and actions at play and, as a book constructed primarily from interviews, he has a lot to draw from the victims, former employees, lobbyists, activists, and yes, the men that run these businesses. It's a dark story-- engrossing and edifying. My only complaint is that Rivlin seems compelled to put a black or white hat on everyone he talks to playing up their likability or contemtability with entirely irrelevant tidbits about their appearance or bearing. It really hate it when writers do that. Just let actions speak for themselves, don't condescend to pull transparent tricks on the reader.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Depressing history of the “poverty industry,” ensuring that the poor pay more in every way, from subprime mortgages to payday lending. Rivkin talks to a lot of people who work in the industry, and work to constrain it. The most interesting parts are about the people trying to do “ethical” lending—charging a small risk premium over prime for underbanked borrowers, and generally doing pretty well for themselves and for their customers, except that their example showed the big banks that there was a ton of money to be made in subprime. There’s a note of hope in the end, which ends with the creation of the new Consumer Financial Product Safety Commission, but the story is far from over.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A close examination of the so-called "poverty industry". Just how exactly did so many people get rich from the very very poor? The author pursues the trail by looking at sub-prime mortgages, pawn shops, payday check cashers, and financiers. A very detailed and complex chronicling of the American history of usury.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excellent, readable, and ultimately depressing story of the poverty lending business and how it helped bring about the financial meltdown.