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

More low-income families now need assistance on how to find financial vehicles that will allow them to more effectively manage debt, savings and their financial lives. A recently released book edited by Rebecca M. Blank and Michael S. Barr, Insufficient Funds: Savings, Assets, Credit, and Banking among Low-Income Households (Russell Sage Press, 2009) discusses the problems and suggests how to bring more low-income families into the formal financial sector by offering them better financial service products. The book also recommends improved opportunities for saving, and regulation of credit and financial markets in ways that help lower-income families avoid credit and investment options that create long-term financial problems.

On May 4, the Brookings Institution hosted a discussion on how the book’s recommendations might be realized in this current economic environment. This event was jointly sponsored by the Center on Children and Families at Brookings; the National Poverty Center at the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan; Brookings’s Retirement Security Project; and the Georgetown Public Policy Institute.

Ron Haskins giving opening remarks.		Rebecca Blank speaking at event.