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How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy, by Mehrsa Baradaran
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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 U.S. 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.
- Sales Rank: #67811 in Books
- Published on: 2015-10-06
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.50" h x 1.10" w x 6.30" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 336 pages
Review
An important voice…[Baradaran’s] excellent new book, How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation and the Threat to Democracy describes how, for decades, big banks have shed their social contract with the American public and transformed themselves into modern monstrosities which serve corporations and the wealthy and exploit or avoid the less affluent members of our society. Setting the stage with this historical context, Baradaran makes a compelling case for a postal banking system which would greatly benefit millions of struggling ‘unbanked’ Americans. (Ralph Nader Huffington Post 2015-11-13)
The title of [Baradaran’s] lean, angry book echoes the photojournalism of Jacob Riis, whose 1890 work on the slums of New York, How the Other Half Lives, spurred a housing reform movement… In a society built on credit as a means to wealth, low-income families deserve a much better deal, Baradaran argues. People do not opt for expensive products because they do not know any better, or are somehow reckless or irresponsible. They do so because they have no choice. And that is a national embarrassment. (Ben McLannahan Financial Times 2015-11-13)
Baradaran argues persuasively that the banking industry, fattened on public subsidies (including too-big-to-fail bailouts), owes low-income families a better deal… How the Other Half Banks is well researched and clearly written… The bankers who fully understand the system are heavily invested in it. Books like this are written for the rest of us. (Nancy Folbre New York Times Book Review 2015-10-06)
Mehrsa Baradaran’s terrific book, How the Other Half Banks, argues that we could and should ask banks to serve the poor and working class once again. In particular, post office banks (with storefronts and websites both) could provide those missing banking services: a place to park cash, earn interest and take out small amount loans… The idea is not hers originally, but she seizes and expands on the idea brilliantly and at great length. In particular, she advances the case for postal banking by reviewing the country’s earlier experience with postal banks, and by linking that experience to the modern problem of missing services for the poor and working class… One can appreciate why the policy world has come to Baradaran for her expertise, and this book will constitute a central contribution to the debate… I will recommend this book to all who are interested in structural racism… Baradaran demonstrates how the the post-deregulation restructuring of banking has disproportionately impacted communities of color, and how postal banking and other public options might bring them back into the fold once more. Baradaran’s revival of postal banking, and her description of the disappearance of services in the wake of deregulation, is fresh and engaging, and I highly recommend [the] book for all who are interested in the structure of inequality. (Daria Roithmayr JOTWELL 2015-10-02)
Steadily shedding low-profit clients, American banks flourished during three decades of deregulation, but, when the crunch came last decade, the U.S. government―spouting we-are-all-in-this-together rhetoric―rushed to their rescue. In good times, banks are free-market players. In bad times, they have all the comforts of state agents. The author’s emphasis is not on curtailing megabanks’ privileges―a reader could get the impression she thinks that case too obvious for lengthy exposition―but on providing secure, low-cost credit for those who need it most. Her back-to-the-future solution is postal banking. Although the idea sounds terribly old-fashioned―it hasn’t been seen in the U.S. since the 1960s―more than 50 nations, including Japan and Germany, maintain a vibrant postal-bank system, a pillar of their strong savings cultures. (Brian Bethune Maclean’s 2015-10-26)
Baradaran charges that nearly half of the American population has been deprived of access to financial services at a fair price thanks to financial deregulation…A comprehensive addition to the ongoing discussions of both inequality and the financial system. (Kirkus Reviews 2015-08-01)
A fascinating in-depth view of why and how so many Americans struggle to find affordable banking services. Modern finance provides great opportunity but also many risks, through hidden fees or even outright deception. The crisis of 2008 was not an aberration―and we have not fixed the deep-seated underlying problems. A must read for anyone who aspires to build financial security for themselves, for their family, and for the nation. (Simon Johnson, coauthor of White House Burning and 13 Bankers)
Do banks have a public responsibility to serve the poor? This captivating book argues that they do. A fresh and provocative perspective on the very old problem of the poor and debt. (Patricia A. McCoy, coauthor of The Subprime Virus)
Thoughtful and exhaustive. (Helaine Olen Democracy 2016-01-01)
Important and comprehensive…How the Other Half Banks is a fascinating read, and Baradaran has done a masterful job of turning what could be incredibly dry material into a well-paced, accessible chronicle of how the consumer financial services industry has changed since the beginning of the republic. She traces the history of the relationship between the banking industry and the nation, and shows how banks have gained more power, leaving the less well-off excluded and exploited…How the Other Half Banks tells an important story, one in which we have allowed the profit motives of banks to trump the public interest. Baradaran is right to take a pragmatic approach to these issues, as it seems unlikely that there is sufficient political will to renegotiate the social contract between banks and government so that it once again favors the public. (Lisa J. Servon American Prospect 2016-02-03)
About the Author
Mehrsa Baradaran is Associate Professor at the University of Georgia School of Law.
Most helpful customer reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
An engaging, informative trip through the history and present of banking as it relates to the poor.
By Sam
You can’t get through Professor Baradaran’s book without becoming more informed. Over the last half decade or so, a lot has been written about the financial crisis. And Professor Baradaran has made a worthy contribution to this crisis library. She doesn’t spend a lot of time retreading what I’ve seen in other books—she doesn’t really trace the machinations associated with determining whether to save the banks, and which banks to save, or the details of the financial instruments that blew up, or much of the current intrigue.
Instead, she lays out the history of banking, with a focus on its relationship to the state. Banks, she explains, have been controversial in the United States since its founding; they’re essential to grow an economy and put money where it needs to go but, by gathering money together, banks can accrue outsized power and influence.
Originally, banks in the U.S. were local; only during the Civil War, when the country needed lots more money than it had, banks really become national. And even then, they were tightly regulated. That regulation ensured both that the banks received necessary support from the government, and that the banks were roughly democratic in how the treated depositors and borrowers. Even with regulation, though, banks tended to shift power to urban areas and to the wealthy, at the expense of the rural and the poor.
In her book, Professor Baradaran traces several good banking movements (including credit unions and savings and loans) that were originally meant to provide banking services to a broader population than the banking industry did. She also traces the downfall of these various attempts, as they either transformed into the banks they were meant to supplement, or otherwise failed.
As deregulatory pressures mounted, the banks managed to almost completely shake their social-contract obligations toward the poor, leaving the poor unbanked and at the mercy of expensive and sometimes-unsavory fringe lenders. She explains in significant detail why this state of affairs is bad, and recommends a solution (postal banking, but you’ll want to read her book to understand why).
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
I recommend buying two copies - one for yourself
By James P. Massar
Up until the 1980's or 1990's, banks existed not just for their own benefit, but, as Baradaran argues, they found themselves in an uneasy pact with the government - they were regulated and chartered by governments to provide some benefits to the people, while being allowed to make profit. Then the social compact was destroyed; banks are now allowed to operate with essentially no thought to the general welfare, and government has abdicated what little responsibility it once had.
Baradaran makes the strong case for Postal Banking (economies of scale, ubiquitous, non-profit), and notes that government's once-taken-on responsibility to provide banking services to more than the well to do could be revitalized thereof.
She also makes the case that the equivalent of payday lending is a necessary service that won't go away by attempting to regulate it out of existence, as some wish to do. In describing existing payday lending and its effects on those who use it she makes the case that an alternative is sorely needed; those who must rely on such services are being buried.
There is fascinating history here and clear writing which exposes a huge social problem. There is also a practical solution. I recommend buying two copies - one for yourself, and one to send to your US Representative.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Essential reading on the US banking system
By N. Hamilton
This book is an excellent primer on the history of banking in the United States, as well as a compelling argument for a significant political proposal.
I read this book with a couple of different brains. One was the brain of a girl who grew up "middle class poor" and experienced a lot of the instability Baradaran describes among the unbanked or working poor. In my understanding of our family's struggles, lack of credit was never a consciously felt harm. When we were strapped for cash, we never wondered how to get a loan or went to a payday lender--we either got help from our family, or we got evicted. If there had been an option to go to the post office and get a $300 loan to make rent this month, would we have used that? Would that have helped? If my single mom had atrocious credit, would we have been eligible? In my version of poverty, the philosophy was ALWAYS to find some way to go without rather than incurring any debt, but I realize now as an adult that debt is a key path to many for building enormous fortunes. I'm left with a question--is debt ever anything but a death sentence for the poor? The answer to most of these questions is "I don't know." My poor person brain sees this whole notion of providing easier, safer access to credit to the poor as just a tiny band-aid on the problem of poverty, and lands me back at the conclusion that fighting capital directly through organizing workers is the best bet the working class in this country has. Postal banking seems like it would be a helpful addition, but not a vehicle for structural change.
The other brain I used to read this book, though, was my history major, political brain, and that brain just ate it up. Chapter 2, "History of the Social Contract" between the banking industry and the state, should be required reading for every high school student of US history. I was a history nerd, and still my eyes glazed over in every discussion of Hamilton and Jefferson and their fight about the establishment of a national bank, and what exactly the Federal Reserve does, etc. etc.. Baradaran does an amazing job of opening up that history and making it accessible to non-banker types. (Not just accessible. Enjoyable!) And she makes a very compelling case that our current era, from the 1980s on, is a dramatic departure from anything else we've seen in the history of this country in terms of banking and the state. With this brain, this topic seems huge and important. This seems like a deep and invisible seam running through the whole story of economic inequality in this society, a shadow we need to bring to light.
This book is, without a doubt, hugely important. Baradaran brings a dogged focus to the needs of the poor; in a book about banking, this alone is refreshing. I almost want a sequel to get a more detailed about some of the issues she raised. She mentions that "Technology and market changes came first," before the avalanche of deregulation. Perhaps it was outside the purview of this book, but I want that broken down--what kinds of changes? How is this connected to the widescale "globalization" of the US manufacturing economy, and the all-out war on organized labor? Baradaran makes a point to mention how different eras of banking interacted with race--but the examples she mentions briefly just raise more questions for me, and leave me wanting a whole book on that topic. (Good news for me! I believe the author is currently writing that book!) I've always deliberately chosen to do business with a credit union over a bank, and this book diminished some of my optimism around that--I'd love a whole extra chapter devoted to the current day state of the credit union movement, and how they compare to banks. I loved how firmly Baradaran insisted that access to credit was not just an economic issue, but an issue that spoke to the overall health of our democracy. I would have LOVED to hear more from her about how the concentration of capital threatens political democracy. "How the Other Half Banks" provides an amazing survey of a lot of interconnected, complicated issues, and I think it's the sign of the writer's gift with words that it left me wanting more on the topic. The book probably wouldn't have gotten read very widely if it came out at 700 pages, so the amount of information and detail she did provide struck a healthy balance between educating the reader and making sure the information remained accessible.
While it's obvious that Baradaran feels passionately about the proposal to institute postal banking, she also does not pretend that it is the core solution to economic inequality and the ravages of capitalism. After reading this, I understand in a new way why credit tracking/rating/reporting is such a big deal in our society, and why capitalism is predicated on the infinite, suicidal need for endless growth. And, I still hate all that. I still think the way we go about it is so fundamentally broken that it would be best to just scrap it all and start over. But as long as we're stuck with this system, voices like Baradaran's are essential in ameliorating its harms and making it work a little better for as many people as possible.
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