Shortchanged

Life and Debt in the Fringe Economy

How is it that Americans have gotten into so much debt in so little time?

Most would point the finger at the credit card culture that has engulfed the America way of life. But there is so much more than just credit cards in this current equation.

Professor of Social Policy at the University of Houston Howard Karger sheds light on a parallel economic universe of credit card users, payday lenders and pawnshops who lure the poor and middle class of America into a constant diet of debt.

Karger argues that the highly deregulated financial sector in the US, coupled with mindless consumerism has brought about the current debt generation. By all accounts, the crisis is set to worsen with little being done to alleviate the situation.

The work is an essential reading for anyone who wants to see for themselves how predatory economic practices have plunged the nation into a spiral of debt and poverty.