According to a Demos calculation based on the Survey of Consumer Finances, a higher proportion of women ages 25 to 34 carry credit card debt compared with their male peers-76 percent vs. 67 percent-but the men carry higher amounts of debt, which is what really matters when you're trying to stay on top of monthly bills.
Lisa J. Danetz of Demos, a nonpartisan public policy center focused on expanding democratic participation, affirmed Slater's testimony that registration is not being offered at public agencies in many states.
"In this important and insightful book, Michael Edwards lays bare the mythologies surrounding philanthropy and shows it to be exactly what it is — an essential part of our capitalist system, with all the flaws and foibles found elsewhere — good at what it does best but bad at what it's sometimes expected to do. Anyone who wants the truth of philanthropy in America should read this book."
-- Robert B. Reich, Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley
The authors of "Up to Our Eyeballs: How Shady Lenders and Failed Economic Policies are Drowning Americans in Debt" blame the rising costs of health care, higher education and housing for making "debt the only mechanism available to many Americans for coping with a job loss or a medical emergency or even everyday needs like car repairs and groceries."
"In my opinion, Barber is right. The heart of this book--a section titled "The Eclipse of Citizens" — provides chapter and verse." --Washington Post Book World
Ninth Circuit Makes Final its Ruling that Vote-Swapping Websites Are Entitled to First Amendment Protection
New York — The Ninth Circuit has confirmed an important First Amendment victory for operators and users of political websites, denying California's petition for rehearing en banc in Porter v. Bowen. Today's order leaves standing an August 2007 ruling by a three-judge panel that the First Amendment protects so-called "vote-swapping" websites from threats of criminal prosecution by government officials.
The news is grim. Housing values are dropping, subprime mortgage meltdowns are spreading, the stock market's uncertain and the overall economy seems to be heading into a recession.
No wonder plenty of us are worried.
Still, you can protect yourself. Here are some experts' top five must-make strategies to do your best now that the economy is likely in for a choppy ride.
Now that the subprime mortgage industry has collapsed, policymakers fear that Americans are shifting their debt to credit cards with deceptive and exploitive terms.
Cox and Alm need to read a disturbing report by the public policy group Demos and the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University. "By a Thread: The New Experience of America's Middle Class" says that only 31 percent of middle-class families are secure.
Voting Rights Groups Demos and Project Vote Send Intent to Sue Notices to Arizona and Florida for Noncompliance with National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).
A report last year from New York-based think tank Demos found that about one-third of cardholders have paid interest rates in excess of 20%, and that borrowers can incur a "cascade" of penalties and end up in a "trap" of high-cost debt.
The nine states that have already passed election-day registration — also known as EDR — have seen an increase in voter turnout by more than 5 percent throughout the entire state, and more than 10 percent among voters in the demographic of 18 to 24-year-olds, according to statistics provided by Solheim and Morfeld.
While the downturn appeared first with the collapse of a relatively discrete sector of the US market-the so-called "sub-prime" mortgages-it quickly exploded, revealing a gaping hole in the credit system itself. As the former Chief Economist at the US International Trade Commission, Peter Morici, recently wrote, "The subprime meltdown reveals fundamental structural flaws in the US banking system.
The Supreme Court today turned back a constitutional challenge to spending limits for student government campaigns at the University of Montana, denying review of a June 2007 ruling by the Ninth Circuit that upheld the limits. The Supreme Court's action is a victory for the Associated Students of the University of Montana ("ASUM") and the University, which argued that the limits on campaign spending serve to assure all students, regardless of their financial circumstances, an equal opportunity to win election to student government.
According to Demos, a policy research group in New York, "American families are using credit cards to bridge the gaps created by stagnant wages and higher costs of living." Americans owe nearly $900 billion on their credit cards.
New York — The United States Census practice of counting prisoners in their districts of incarceration rather than their home districts for the purpose of establishing electoral and Congressional representation is a violation of international treaty. This month, the non-partisan public policy and advocacy centers Demos and the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) submitted their analysis to the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva.