Not only is money tight with food and gas prices rising, but credit is tougher to come by and homes are no longer available as an ATM. At the same time, the spread of eco-consciousness into mainstream culture is shining a spotlight on waste and prompting many consumers to reconsider how they shop.
Field investigators who interviewed people leaving state social service offices in the last year in Jackson, Clay and St. Louis counties and St. Louis city said almost none of those people were asked if they wanted to register, according to Scott Novakowski, a senior policy analyst for Demos, one of four national advocacy groups representing the plaintiffs. Three of the sites visited did not have voter registration applications available, he said.
[State Rep. Lois DeBerry] is sponsoring a bill that would prohibit credit issuers from recruiting students on campus or from offering gifts to students on campus to entice them into applying for a credit card, usually at major athletic events. So far, she's having trouble getting the bill through the Legislature.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
To make ends meet, working families have been forced to rely more on credit for basic household necessities. According to a recent study by Demos, from 1989 to 2001 credit card debt in the U.S. nearly tripled, from $238 billion to $692 billion. Add into this equation the lack of affordable housing in almost every region in the country, and an ideal environment was created for predatory mortgage lenders to take advantage of vulnerable working families.
Trouble with electronic voting machines and confusion over identification rules frustrated voters across the country Tuesday, creating delays in Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Colorado.
Members of the House Government Operations Committee were like pinballs last week, ricocheting between two walls as they worked to set campaign
contribution limits.