BusinessWeek reveals how businesses are profiting from the nation's working poor.

Monday, August 18, 2008:
In the News: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration weighs in on the safety of Bisphenol A (BPA). Read the latest from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the FDA's draft report. Watch Exposé's "Chemistry War Zone" to learn about the controversy surrounding this chemical, which is found not only in household plastics and the linings of metal cans, but also in 93% of the people tested by the Centers for Disease Control.

Friday, August 8, 2008: This week on Exposé: a new episode online and on Bill Moyers Journal (check local listings). Is the cost of being poor on the rise? Lower-income families have long paid more for food, housing and other basic necessities. But corner bodegas, pawn shops, and rent-to-own furniture stores, often staples of poor neighborhoods, have been joined by some newer, bigger competition in recent years.  The finance industry that brought the nation subprime mortgages has now come to town seeking riches in the form of high-interest, high-fee loans. Holding out the promise of credit for everything from cars to computers to medical bills, these new businesses - backed by some well-known financial industry players - have moved in, leading low-income consumers into a potentially unending cycle of debt.

Read all the original reporting and listen to a podcast with BusinessWeek's John Byrne, Brian Grow and Keith Epstein on the story behind "The Poverty Business." Crunch the numbers on the new economics of the poverty business. Ask the reporters about their investigation by submitting questions to the Blog on the Bill Moyers Journal site.