INCOME, EQUALITY, AND CONSUMER PROTECTION

Since 1980, the gap between rich and poor in the United States has grown steadily wider, with wealth increasingly concentrated in the top 10 percent of the population. According to the report What Wealth Inequality in America Looks Like: Key Facts and Figures, published by the Federal Reserve Bank o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:GP solo 2020-05, Vol.37 (3), p.34-37
Main Author: Coyle, Liz
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Consumer protection
Households
Income distribution
Interest rates
Laws, regulations and rules
Poverty
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Summary:Since 1980, the gap between rich and poor in the United States has grown steadily wider, with wealth increasingly concentrated in the top 10 percent of the population. According to the report What Wealth Inequality in America Looks Like: Key Facts and Figures, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in August 2019 (https://tinyurl.com/ v8hqh5m): Wealth inequality in America has grown tremendously from 1989 to 2016, to the point where the top 10% of families ranked by household wealth (with at least $1.2 million in net "worth) own 77% of the wealth "pie." [...]in 2004, Georgia passed the Payday Lending Act, which capped small consumer loans at a rate of 60 percent per year, added stiff criminal and civil penalties for violators, and barred non-bank lenders from collaborating with banks to avoid Georgia's usury laws. Georgia Watch, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization for which I serve as executive director, recently worked with the Student Innovation Fellowship at Georgia State University to map title pawn lending locations across the state (https://tinyurl.com/ wcervnj).
ISSN:1528-638X
2163-1727