A picture of the current state of the private retirement system, why this picture bodes ill for the future of retirement in the country, and why that system needs reform.
Economic insecurity has become the “new normal” in America. Ten million Americans are out of work, and the vast majority of Americans have seen their incomes stagnate or decline over the past decade. Demos’ extensive research on credit card debt among middle- and low-income households has found that most indebted families go into debt to pay for basic expenses: groceries, utilities, child care, and health care. Simply put, Americans are borrowing to make ends meet.
For many years, health care costs have been steadily rising. As employers have moved into insurance coverage options with greater out-of-pocket expenses or have stopped providing health care coverage altogether, American families have struggled with the burden of health care costs.
In the last thirty years, our nation has experienced a paradox of productivity and progress. Productivity, driven by extraordinary growth in technology and an increased push towards consumption, has nearly tripled. Meanwhile social, environmental, and educational progress has stalled.
Social Security remains our nation’s key source of retirement income for most Americans. The program’s overall health is sound and with relatively modest tweaks to the program’s financing, we can strengthen the system for generations to come.
Young adults in North Carolina and across the country are confronting an economic reality vastly different from that of their parent’s generation. Over the past three decades, economic opportunity and security for all but the most affluent and most highly educated has declined. Today, North Carolina’s workers in their early twenties earn almost a fifth less in real terms than workers their age forty years ago, while those in their mid twenties earn only three percentage points more than workers their age four decades ago.
Recent federal action, including the passage of the Credit Card Bill of Rights of 2009 and the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, provided needed regulation and oversight of the credit card industry. However, past debt continues to haunt families even as they add on new debt. The findings below, from the 2008 Credit Card Debt Household Survey of Low-and Middle-Income Households, demonstrates that the means used by consumers of color to pay down debt further chips away at their economic viability.
How the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Actwill bring greater security to American consumers, investors and Main Street businesses.
"We've got to deal with the conflicts. If I hire S&P or Moody's to be my consultant and show me how I can do this and that to get an investment-grade rating or [an] even higher rating, they obviously have a conflict of interest there."
"That's right. I think the compensation model... where the issuer pays for the rating is really at the heart of the conflict problem..."
Work by Demos and its partners suggests that millions of low-income Americans can be brought into the political process through proper implementation of an often-neglected provision of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) that requires states to provide voter registration services to applicants and recipients of public assistance benefits. And the time is ripe to ensure that voter registration is provided at public assistance offices.
Democracy works as intended when all citizens are able to participate and make their voices heard. While the United States has come a long way in expanding the franchise over the past 220 years, barriers to participation still exist and these barriers disproportionately affect low-income citizens. In 2008, the registration gap between low-income and high-income citizens was over 19 percentage points.
Election Day Registration (EDR) is a variety of Same Day Registration (SDR) that allows eligible voters to register and cast a ballot on Election Day. This “how-to guide” on EDR implementation and administration distills election officials’ first-hand insights into the effective implementation of EDR. We focused here on key issues such as poll worker recruiting and training, avoiding confusion and congestion at the polls, serving special populations, and preserving the integrity of elections.
It may be a cliché that we are a nation of immigrants, but statistics show that it is as true today as in any other period in our history. And while Americans may debate the best way to bring noncitizens into the civic life of our communities, there is widespread, strong agreement that when someone from another country takes the affirmative step to take the oath of loyalty and become a citizen of this country, he should be welcomed and encouraged to be a part of our country and our social and political life.
Wealthy nations, led by the United States, should move to reduce or eliminate all tariffs on imports from developing countries as one way to help offset the extraordinary costs these countries face in confronting climate change. If U.S. tariff policy continues on the current trajectory, the U.S. is likely to collect about $90 billion in import duties on products from developing countries, excluding China, by 2020.1 The combined total collected by the European Union, Japan, and other wealthy countries may exceed that amount.
"We've got to deal with the conflicts. If I hire S&P or Moody's to be my consultant and show me how I can do this and that to get an investment-grade rating or [an] even higher rating, they obviously have a conflict of interest there."
"That's right. I think the compensation model... where the issuer pays for the rating is really at the heart of the conflict problem..."
Young adults have an enormous stake in the financial regulatory reform debate. They have paid a high price for a banking crisis caused by lax regulation, and their economic futures will depend on rebuilding strong public structures for financial regulation going forward. This briefing paper addresses some of the key reforms and the impact of both the banking crisis and unregulated lending practices on young Americans' financial futures.
The major credit rating agencies, Moody’s, Standard & Poors, and Fitch, bear a heavy burden of responsibility for the financial meltdown. It was their seal of approval that enabled Wall Street to develop a multi-trillion-dollar market for bonds resting on a foundation of tricky loans and bubbly housing prices. Institutional investors around the world were seduced into buying these high-risk securities by credit ratings that made them out to be as safe as the most conventional corporate and municipal bonds.