book-cover-BlankBarr-InsufficientFunds

Title: Insufficient Funds: Savings, Assets, Credit, and Banking Among Low-Income Households

Author: Rebecca M. Blank & Michael S. Barr, editors

Published: January 2011

Book Summary:

One in four American adults doesn’t have a bank account. Low-income families lack access to many of the basic financial services middle-class families take for granted and are particularly susceptible to financial emergencies, unemployment, loss of a home, and uninsured medical problems. Insufficient Funds explores how institutional constraints and individual decisions combine to produce this striking disparity and recommends policies to help alleviate the problem. The authors ultimately argue that if we want to demand financial responsibility from low-income households, we have an obligation to assure that these families have access to the banking, credit, and savings institutions that are readily available to higher-income families.

Available on Amazon.

Book Cover Image Source: Amazon