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

A unique and riveting exploration of one of America's largest and fastest-growing industries—the business of poverty.

[A] thorough and thoughtful piece of reporting. . . . It should be required reading for legislators and lenders across the land. — Bloomberg News

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.

Rivlin strives to portray the people behind Poverty Inc. in a fair light . . .but his sympathy and the reader's steadily evaporate with his well-chosen tales of the industry's coercive tactics and its leaders' astonishing wealth. . . . Rivlin is the consummate tour guide, quick with a memorable anecdote or telling statistic. — New York Times Book Review

[An] incisive, important new exposé, Broke, USA . . .is enraging, but Rivlin's work also is scrupulously fair. — Cleveland Plain Dealer