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Books

Land of the Fee

In "Land of the Fee: Hidden Costs and the Decline of the American Middle Class", Devin Fergus offers a compelling explanation for the mounting problem of wealth inequality: the explosion of fees accompanying virtually every transaction that people make.

These perfectly legal fees are buried deep within the verbose agreements between vendors and consumers—agreements that few people fully read or comprehend. The…  More About: Land of the Fee

The Truth about Social Security

In, "The Truth about Social Security: The Founders' Words Refute Revisionist History, Zombie Lies, and Common Misunderstandings", Nancy Altman uses Social Security founders' own words to debunk myths and reveal the truth about the most popular and successful government program in our nation's history. According to Kirkus Reviews, "Altman's approach is uniquely historical she looks at the speeches and writings of those who originally designed…  More About: The Truth about Social Security

Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America

Alissa Quart, executive editor of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, examines the lives of many middle-class Americans who can now barely afford to raise children.

Through firsthand storytelling, Quart explores how our country has failed its families. Her subjects—from professors to lawyers to caregivers to nurses—have been wrung out by a system that doesn’t support them, and enriches only a tiny elite.

Quart offers solutions…  More About: Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America

Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News

"Bunk" asks what it means to live in a post-factual world of “truthiness” where everything is up for interpretation and everyone is subject to a pervasive cynicism that damages our ideas of reality, fact, and art. The author wends through a uniquely American history with a rogue’s gallery of hoaxers, plagiarists, forgers, and fakers―from the humbug of P. T. Barnum and Edgar Allan Poe to the unrepentant bunk…  More About: Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News

Money Confidence: Really Smart Financial Moves for Newly Single Women

Dealing with money issues as a newly single woman (whether widowed or divorced) is the topic of Kerry Hannon's recent book, now in paperback. Hannon offers on-point advice to help newly single women rebuild their lives and get a grip on their finances as quickly as possible. Information includes practical, can-do suggestions that cover he gamut from creating a budget to investing, where to turn for financial advice and…  More About: Money Confidence: Really Smart Financial Moves for Newly Single Women

The Aisles Have Eyes

A revealing and surprising look at the ways that aggressive consumer advertising and tracking, already pervasive online, are being used by retailers near you. By one expert’s prediction, within 20 years half of Americans will have body implants that tell retailers how they feel about specific products as they browse their local stores. The notion may be outlandish, but it reflects executives’ drive to understand…  More About: The Aisles Have Eyes

Utopia for Realists

Rutger Bregman's 2014 TEDTalk about universal basic income (a guaranteed stipend for every single person funded by a wealth tax) at the time seemed impossibly radical. A quarter of a million views later, the idea is being seriously discusssed by leading economists and government leaders the world over. Bregman's idealism is surprising and challenging and worth listening to. He provides examples of how his utopian ideas could…  More About: Utopia for Realists

Everybody Lies

All of us are touched by big data everyday, and its influence is multiplying. Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are looks at what the vast amounts of information reveal about ourselves and our world. By the end of an average day in the early 21st century, human beings searching the internet will amass eight trillion…  More About: Everybody Lies

The Color of Law

The Color of Law describes how segregation in America—which continues to impact major cities and contribute to social strife—is the byproduct of government housing policies at the local, state and federal levels.

As a former columnist for the New York Times, research associate at the Economic Policy Institute and fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Richard Rothstein has spent years…  More About: The Color of Law

The Financial Diaries

The American Dream is backed by the belief that hard work and steady saving will ensure a comfortable retirement and a better life for one's children. But in a nation experiencing unprecedented prosperity, even for many families who seem to be doing everything right, this ideal is still out of reach.

The Financial Diaries draws on information from the U.S. Financial Diaries, which follow the lives…  More About: The Financial Diaries

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