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How the Other Half Banks
- Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy
- Narrated by: Priya Ayyar
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
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Publisher's summary
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 America's 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.
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In the minds of historians and the American public alike, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of our greatest presidents, not least because he supposedly saved America from the Great Depression. But as historian Jim Powell reveals in this groundbreaking book, Roosevelt's New Deal policies actually prolonged and exacerbated the economic disaster.
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Scones for the Tea Party
- By Chiefkent on 06-11-12
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Why Save the Bankers?
- And Other Essays on Our Economic and Political Crisis
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- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
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Thomas Piketty's work has proved that unfettered markets lead to increasing inequality. Without meaningful regulation, capitalist economies will concentrate wealth in an ever smaller number of hands. Armed with this knowledge, democratic societies face a defining challenge: fending off a new aristocracy. For years Piketty has wrestled with this problem in his monthly newspaper column, which pierces the surface of current events to reveal the economic forces underneath.
By: Thomas Piketty, and others
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The Age of Oversupply
- Overcoming the Greatest Challenge to the Global Economy
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- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
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The governments and central banks of the developed world have tried every policy tool imaginable, yet our economies remain sluggish, or worse. How did we get here, and how can we emerge from the longest downturn in recent memory? Daniel Alpert, a progressive Wall Street banker and economist, argues that we are living in the age of oversupply.
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Great book but now out of date
- By emory morsberger on 11-30-17
By: Daniel Alpert
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Aftershock
- The Next Economy and America’s Future
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- Narrated by: Robert Reich
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
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The author of 12 acclaimed books, Robert B. Reich is a Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and has served in three national administrations. While many blamed Wall Street for the financial meltdown, Aftershock points a finger at a national economy in which wealth is increasingly concentrated at the top - and where a grasping middle class simply does not have the resources to remain viable.
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Very plausible assessment of our economy
- By CAR TOP CAMPER on 10-06-10
By: Robert B. Reich
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Dead Aid
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- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
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A national best-seller, Dead Aid unflinchingly confronts one of the greatest myths of our time: that billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth. In fact, poverty levels continue to escalate and growth rates have steadily declined - and millions continue to suffer. Debunking the current model of international aid promoted by both Hollywood celebrities and policy makers, Dambisa Moyo offers a bold new road map for financing the development of the world's poorest countries.
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Dangerous / Right Wing US view
- By David O'Donovan on 03-05-19
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Free to Choose
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Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose, teamed up to write this most convincing and readable guide, which illustrates the crucial link between Adam Smith's capitalism and the free society. They show how freedom has been eroded and prosperity undermined through the rapid growth of governmental agencies, laws, and regulations.
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Fantastic
- By Erik on 01-21-08
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Shaky Ground
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In 2008 the US Treasury put Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a life-support state known as "conservatorship" to prevent their failure - and worldwide economic chaos. The two companies, which were always controversial, have become a battleground. Today, Fannie and Freddie are profitable again but still in conservatorship. Their profits are being redirected toward reducing the federal deficit, which leaves them with no buffer should they suffer losses again.
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Details on the Culture and History of the GSEs
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The Instant Economist
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Economics isn't just about numbers: It's about politics, psychology, history, and so much more. We are all economists - when we work, save for the future, invest, pay taxes, and buy our groceries. Yet many of us feel lost when the subject arises. Award-winning professor Timothy Taylor here tackles all the key questions and hot topics of both microeconomics and macroeconomics, so you can understand and discuss economics on a personal, national, and global level.
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Timothy Taylor is the best
- By Jake on 02-15-15
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The Fine Print
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David Cay Johnston has made a name for himself as the defender of the common man, calling out the rich and powerful for cheating the system at the expense of everyone else. Whether he's exposing unjust loopholes in the tax code that help the rich get richer or pointing out how powerful corporations pocket government subsidies at excessive taxpayer expense, Johnston is an eloquent town crier for justice and equality.
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A must listen if you love or hate Trump
- By Rob D on 04-19-17
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Economics for the Common Good
- By: Jean Tirole, Steven Rendell - translator
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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When Jean Tirole won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics, he suddenly found himself being stopped in the street by complete strangers and asked to comment on issues of the day, no matter how distant from his own areas of research. His transformation from academic economist to public intellectual prompted him to reflect further on the role economists and their discipline play in society. The result is Economics for the Common Good, a passionate manifesto for a world in which economics, far from being a "dismal science," is a positive force for the common good.
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A Great Overview of the Challenges of Modern Econ
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Red Flags
- Why Xi's China Is in Jeopardy
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Over the past four decades, China's remarkable transformation has garnered admiration but also sparked concern. George Magnus draws on his intimate knowledge of this dynamic nation to uncover the origins of its ascent and show why the economic traps it faces at home and the political challenges it faces abroad pose a serious threat to its continued rise.
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A pessimistic vision with western liberal bias
- By Jeronimo L. Jimenez on 10-23-20
By: George Magnus
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Wall Street
- A History, Updated Edition
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- Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin
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Wall Street is an unending source of legend - and nightmares. It is a universal symbol of both the highest aspirations of economic prosperity and the basest impulses of greed and deception. Charles R. Geisst's Wall Street is at once a chronicle of the street itself - from the days when the wall was merely a defensive barricade built by Peter Stuyvesant - and an engaging economic history of the United States, a tale of profits and losses, enterprising spirits, and key figures that transformed America into the most powerful economy in the world.
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Many books in one; best linking of stories, eras
- By Philo on 03-23-14
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What listeners say about How the Other Half Banks
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Roy Payne
- 02-18-22
Eye opening
This information will make me more aware of how money is moved and used by banks.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-29-20
another winner
love her books. straightforward content and very enlightening. you begin to see the con game and think of ways to bring balance to fundamental sectors of our world.
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- Drawn Onward
- 03-07-24
incisive and thorough
Covering a range of structures in the financial services industry, from banks to credit unions to cooperative models, this insightful text really digs into the hows and whys of our current economic reality. A must-read.
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- Kindle Grandma
- 01-30-22
Full of truth and info on banking and wealth
What a full perspective and informational treatis on banking and the accumulation or lack of wealth for the everyday person. As hard a pill as it is to swallow, I got a full open truth of how and why the "honest" banking methods are not working where I come from. We all need to advocate for change......
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- Monero Jeanniton
- 03-12-24
History of the banking and loan industry in the US
The book gives a long history of the banking industry. You will understand how banks operate. They are predatory profit making businesses (, at least back in the days).
The USPS has revolutionized the banking specially because of its state, as a public enterprise, and its large network.
The book tells nothing on how the rich bank. If you want to gain intermediate financial literacy, I am inviting you to get course on Financial Maths, and to read another book titled "Debt 101".
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- Darwin8u
- 09-13-16
The Borrowers at the Fringe
If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him.... You shall not lend him your money for usury.
-- Leviticus 25: 35-37
I should disclose right upfront that I know and am friends (probably closer to acquaintances, since we share several friends and geography prevents us from actually breaking physical bread) with Mehrsa. But she didn't give me the book. I bought the HB version of her book and the audio version as well because I was genuinely interested in these subjects.
Financial policy is one of my hobbyhorses, and the literature (JR, The Big Short, Flash Boys, Cosmopolis, The Bonfire of the Vanities, etc), both fiction and nonfiction, that surrounds money I find super interesting. Some of this is probably due to my background. I started off my working life as a policy analyst in an Eastern State and now work as a financial advisor out West. My job used to be to analyze policy proposals and new regulations. Now, I work in the financial industry.
Anyway, I've decided this year to try and read three or four nonfiction book on the financial industry. I started with Bad Paper: Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld, read this one, and will hopefully get to Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right and The Money Cult: Capitalism, Christianity, and the Unmaking of the American Dream before the end of the year.
In this book Professor Baradaran lays out the theoretical and historical basis for a public option (the US Post Office) to serve the large segment of the American populace that is underserved (read this book and you will be shocked by just how underserved AND just how many) by traditional banks and credit unions. This large segment is often preyed upon by the payday lending and check cashing industries which, from my own vantage point, are industries that add very few positives to the US economy. As we see income disparity grow, and the poor disenfranchised not just from civic life and political participation, but also banking, we are sowing the seeds of trouble for our democracy.
This book carefully lays out the problems, the history, solutions of the past, current alternatives and roadblocks to change, and points to probably the most viable policy option. Given the nature of Congress' polarization and inability to act on some of the most basic responsibilities of governing, I don't hold much hope of change in the near future. But as demographic changes swell the underserved, as certain parties (like banks) continue to shrink their tent, at some point there might be enough energy and support for real, public option, banking reform*. And at that point, this book will be VERY important.
Professor Baradaran is not Michael Lewis. She didn't weave her economic book into the narrative of some fascinating character that drives the narrative through the channels of postal banking. She is not writing New New Journalism. This book won't get optioned for a movie. Sorry Mehrsa. :( This is a book that ends with 86 pages of notes. That is one page of notes for about 3 pages of text. This is, at heart, a policy brief. But here is the analogy I used with my wife last night:
There is a story about Velvet Underground's first album told by Brian Eno. While Velvet Underground and Nico sold only 30,000 copies in its early years, "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band." This book is NOT destined to compete with a Michael Lewis bestseller. It won't get optioned. But like money deposited in a bank with a very low reserve rate, some books (and some albums) are big idea multipliers. And who knows, perhaps, everybody who reads this book will also start a band.
*Also, if you read this book, you should also check out the Post Office Inspector General's white paper Providing Non-Bank Financial Services for the Underserved
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24 people found this helpful
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- willie underwood
- 09-26-21
Awesome please read
I loved this book. My understanding of banking system was greatly improved. The system is not too complicated.
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- Veronica
- 05-30-17
Great info, infuriating
Information most people should be aware of, book is very dense (textbook like). I recommend.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Pat
- 10-27-20
must read
this was a great book and really enjoyed the history listen on Banking and the creative ideas on how to fix the problems of those who are unbanked.
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- brenda green
- 11-23-21
I am the other half
I thought this book would give me some guidance on how to bank like the ‘other half’… assuming the ‘other half’ referred to those much wealthier than I. Boy was I wrong. Turns out, I am the ‘other half.’ I have a modest checking account, a tiny bit of savings, a mortgage, and a 401k through my employer. What I just listened to was a great lesson on the history of banking in the US (this part was pretty dry), followed by where we are today with millions of ‘unbanked,’ followed by a proposal to help shore up the middle and lower classes’ financial state. I feel so much smarter now, and will use this knowledge next time I vote.
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