We are changing the conversation around our democracy and economy by telling influential new stories about our country and its people. Get our latest media updates here.
It’s not clear that it makes a difference whether protesters occupy Wall Street or Washington, since both places are dominated by an American wealth elite that has grown vastly richer and more powerful in the past few decades.
One of the biggest lies in American politics today, repeated almost daily by conservative leaders, is that the stimulus Congress passed in early 2009 was an utter waste of money.
Now that the supercommittee has closed it's doors, Congress can get on with the all-important work of extending two of the most powerful stimulus measures in effect today -- the reduced payroll tax and extended unemployment benefits.
Attentive students of Washington's now perpetual budget saga will recall that the deal to raise the debt ceiling back in August mandated an end to both the payroll tax cut and extended unemployment benefits. As we noted back then:
NEW YORK -- In a new analysis released today, national policy center Demos announced a major milestone in its work to build a more inclusive democracy: Across five states, more than one million additional low-income Americans, the most vulnerable of “the 99%”, have filled out voter registration forms at public assistance agencies since 2007.
According to Federal Reserve data, the Great Recession wiped out more than $16 trillion in household net worth, and more than two years into the recovery, households are still more than $7 trillion poorer than they were before the collapse.
The existence of the U.S. middle class is in peril. Young people between the ages of 18 and 34 are living in a more fragile economic environment than 30 years ago. If something isn't done to help them lead more economically stable lives, they'll never make it into the middle class.
That's the conclusion of a new report "The State of Young America" from Demos, a combination think-tank and advocacy organization based in New York.