Debt among older U.S. credit card holders has skyrocketed since 2005, as senior citizens increased borrowing to pay for necessities, a new study shows.
Since 2005, revolving debt among low- and middle-income senior citizens -- age 65 or older -- grew 26 percent. In the same period, credit card balances for all age groups rose 3 percent, the public policy group Demos said Tuesday.
Today's 20-somethings are likely to be the first generation to not be better off than their parents." This is the first line of Economic State of Young America, a report released by Demos, a nonpartisan public policy think tank in New York City. And that's a troubling thesis for a generation that grew up being told they can do and be anything.
Cash-strapped older Americans are racking up credit card debt faster than other consumers amid dwindling retirement portfolios and rising medical costs, a study shows.
The study, which will be released Tuesday by Demos, a liberal public policy group, shows that low- and middle-income consumers 65 and older carried $10,235 in average card debt last year, up 26% from 2005. Card debt for all borrowers surveyed rose 3% during that time, to $9,827.
People age 65 and up carried an average of $10,235 credit card debt in 2008, according to a study released Tuesday by Demos, a public policy research group. That's an increase of 26% since the organization's last survey of low- and middle-income borrowers in 2005. The average debt for all borrowers in the survey rose just 3%, to $9,827, during that same time period.
Brenda Wright, director of the Democracy Program at the nonprofit group Demos, one of the groups behind the lawsuits, said 2.6 million people were registered through public assistance offices in 1995-1996, the first two years the law was in effect. But she said registration has dropped precipitously throughout the nation since then, as much as 90% or more in some states.
Lew Daly, senior fellow at Demos, a New York City-based public policy organization and author of God's Economy: Faith-Based Initiatives and the Caring State, praised the text as "a turning point for the church and particularly for the American church, because our nation and our society is both the epicenter of wealth and the epicenter of inequality.
How widespread is credit card use among college students? How much are they in debt?
Pick your study.
According to a recent report from Student Monitor, a national syndicated market-research survey, 41 percent of college students have credit cards. Of them, 65 percent pay their entire bills every month. The average balance for those who don't is $452.
Employers look to cut costs, workers crave stability following market crash
Last fall's Wall Street meltdown, which erased half the value of some 401(k) retirement plans, has whipped up some of the fiercest crosswinds the plans have faced in their three decades of existence...
There's little agreement, however, on what a new retirement system should look like.
After being on the outside for years, consumer lobbyists have gained power. Credit card rules were just the start of what they hope to do with it.
One area of regulatory reform that consumer advocates are particularly keen on is a new panel that would regulate mortgages and credit cards. The White House supports the idea of creating a so-called Financial Safety Products Commission, say consumer advocates and legislative aides.
Bob Herbert, op-ed columnist for The New York Times, received an honorary degree and spoke at Lawrence Universitys 2009 commencement.
Bob Herbert, op-ed columnist for The New York Times, received an honorary degree and spoke at Lawrence University's 2009 commencement. Here are his remarks.
It's a great privilege to be here and to be part of this wonderful day with you smiling, gorgeous, beautiful and brilliant graduates.
Yet these reforms still leave the burden of registration on the voter. The holy grail of registration reform remains universal registration. As the Election Protection coalition states in its report on the 2008 election, this would mean a registration system that was automatic, permanent (providing voters an opportunity to update their registration when they changed their name or address, for example), and allows for voters to correct any mistakes on election day.
Caleb Gibson, federal affairs coordinator for Demos, a New York-based advocacy group on economic issues, is following the credit bill of rights’ progress and lobbying to include as many consumer protections in it as possible. Here’s his quick analysis of what is in the legislation that’s likely to stay and where the Senate and House will have to compromise to meet President Barack Obama’s Memorial Day deadline.
Eighty-four percent of black households carry credit card debt, compared with 54% of white households, according to Demos, a public policy research organization. More than 90% of black families earning $10,000 to $24,999 a year had credit card debt.
Teenage Research Unlimited, a youth research firm, reported that about 10 percent of teens own at least one credit card. "Generation Broke," a study by Demos, reported that between 1992 and 2001, debt has risen by 104 percent among 18- to 24-year-olds. Demos is a nonpartisan public policy research and advocacy organization.
The Galtists tend to end up in long arguments with their opposites: the Rawlsian liberals who believe life is luck, and so too with the bulk of achievement. Impressive as a corporate titan may appear, his success is truly testament to a thousand variables far outside his control. Good genes and attentive parents and a smart peer group and a legacy admission to Yale and perfect timing and much else.
On Tuesday, Sallie Mae reported that student debt over the past four years has been rising faster than blood alcohol levels at a beer pong tournament. Student debt shot up 44 percent over the past four years, with the average senior now carrying a $4,100 load. It only looks to be getting worse. The average freshman already has $2,000 worth of red. That's on top of the roughly $20,000 they'll have in other college-related debt.
Gar Alperovitz and Lew Daly provide progressives with some welcome and fresh ammunition for fighting back and for justifying a redistributionist agenda in their new book, Unjust Deserts. Alperovitz and Daly are attempting nothing less than to shift the entire framework for our thinking about distributive justice.
But with so many women joining the work force, other expenses have skyrocketed for middle-class families, who have bid up prices for things like a home in a safe neighborhood with good schools. Other expenses in a dual-earner family -- including child care, an extra car for mom to go to work and rising college costs -- have gobbled up nearly all of the gains in salary, some argue.
Young adults between ages 19 and 29 make up the largest portion of uninsured in the United States, totaling about 13.2 million in 2007. That's right--young adults make up more than one-fourth of uninsured Americans.
This important cover story from the Detroit Metro Times sheds light on the predicament faced by so many young adults.
Each year, many talented students from low-income areas and families either choose not to attend college at all or drop out under the pressure to keep a job.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, brainchild of the Microsoft mogul, is out to change that. The organization recently unveiled an initiative to double the number of degrees earned by low-income students by the time they reach age 26.