The first book to focus on the differences in wealth between women and men, Mariko Lin Chang draws on the most comprehensive national data on wealth and on in-depth interviews to show how differences in earnings, in saving and investing, and, most important, the demands of care-giving all contribute to the gender-wealth gap. A comprehensive portrait of where women and men stand with respect to wealth, Shortchanged not only sheds light on why women lack wealth, but also offers solutions for improving the financial situation of women, men, and families.

Would you like to be taller? Many people - except very tall people - would likely answer yes. Why should this be the case, when height has nothing to do with intelligence, talent, fortitude, compassion, or indeed any of the factors that make us human? In her thoughtful and provocative book, Tanya S Osensky examines "heightism": the widely held and mostly unconscious notion that taller is better. She explores how and why short people are considered by many to be inferior, and describes the ways in which height bias affects them. Prejudice against short people is so common and casual that we do not even notice it, yet it factors significantly into discrimination in the workplace, in social situations, and beyond. The most helpless victims are short children, who are frequently subjected to years of hormone therapy, even when they have no physical need for such treatment, simply in an effort to make them taller as a way of countering this social bias. There is little legal recourse for short people who suffer workplace discrimination based on height. This succinct book exposes the cultural, medical, and occupational issues that short people face, which are often deemed unimportant and disregarded. Osensky challenges heightism by disclosing some beneficial aspects of shortness and suggesting avenues of activism and change.

This narrative takes an uncompromising look at the corporate vultures that prey on America's working class. Made up of pawnshops, payday lenders, check cashers, credit card companies and the like, the fringe economy entices vulnerable consumers into an economic netherworld.

“Rewards of a Shortchanged Life” encapsulates the journey of Shashank Sinha, the billionaire entrepreneur from being an unknown lawyer in Delhi to a known legal luminary in the country, an educationist who had a vision for future generation to end up in the highest office that a Finance professional can dream of in India. Not that life had always been kind to him and he was destiny’s privileged child, beyond college where he was the chocolate boy, his personal life had always in turmoil, and he kept trying to redeem himself out of the vicious circle. He kept looking for solace, but it messed up even further when the romance of the past reemerged. Will the romance sink him or with his professional acumen, he will be able to make a mark for himself. What would be Shashank Sinha’s legacy?

“An eye-opening read in the school of Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel & Dimed . . . shines a bright light on the economy’s darker side.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) Drive through a low-income neighborhood and you’re likely to see streets lined with pawnshops, check cashers, rent-to-own stores, payday and tax refund lenders, auto title pawns, and buy-here-pay-here used car lots. We’re awash in “alternative financial services” directed at the poor and those with credit problems. Howard Karger describes this world as an economic Wild West, where just about any financial scheme that’s not patently illegal is tolerated. Taking a hard look at this fringe economy, Karger shows that what seem to be small, independent storefront operations are actually part of a fully-formed parallel economy dominated by a handful of well-financed corporations, subject to little or no oversight, with increasingly strong ties to mainstream financial institutions. It is a hidden world, Karger writes, where a customer’s economic fate is sealed with a handshake, a smile, and a stack of fine print documents that would befuddle many attorneys. Filled with heartbreaking stories of real people trapped in perpetual debt, Shortchanged exposes the deceptive practices that allow these businesses to prey on people when they are most vulnerable. Karger reveals the many ways this industry has run amok, ruining countless people’s lives, and shows that it’s not just the poor but, more and more, maxed-out middle class consumers who fall prey to these devious schemes. Balancing compassion with a realistic awareness of the risks any business faces in working with an economically distressed clientele, Karger details hard-headed, practical recommendations for reforming this predatory industry.