Land of the Fee
Hidden Costs and the Decline of the American Middle Class
Devin Fergus
Reviews and Awards
"The book does a good job of explaining how finance became the tail that wags the dog of Main Street. And it is a timely work, one with important lessons about the multi-decade dysfunctional dance between Wall Street and Washington that continues today." -Financial Times
"Land of the Fee offers a cogent, historically grounded account of how certain fees have emerged as stealth agents of our gaping wealth disparity." -Washington Monthly
"This book is an outstanding primary text and faculty resource for upper-division and graduate classes in public and taxation policy and financial markets, regulation, and ethics" -- CHOICE
"[P]rovides a valuable history of legislation." -Kirkus Reviews
"Devin Fergus' account of the underside of American finance reveals a world in which living by all the truisms about personal responsibility can somehow leave you poorer than ever before. The chapter on payday lending is especially striking." -Kim Phillips-Fein, New York University, and author of Fear City
"Land of the Fee is an impressive and timely examination of American inequality and of American consumers' growing financial vulnerability since the 1970s. An exceptionally compelling contributor to ongoing public debates, Fergus does a masterful job of debunking common myths about many Americans' current financial predicaments. This is an important book, and anyone with a credit card or a car note should read it!" -John L. Jackson, Jr., co-author of Impolite Conversations: On Race, Politics, Sex, Money, And Religion
"Devin Fergus takes us on a harrowing journey into the vast, unregulated world of consumer fees and hidden charges that have proliferated in recent decades. Land of the Fee is a compelling account of how--dollar by dollar--wealthy corporations have engaged in a massive transfer of wealth to themselves. Fergus makes a powerful case for the necessity of consumer protection and regulatory reform in an anti-regulation age." -Thomas J. Sugrue, New York University