AARP CEO A. Barry Rand called for renewed focus on strengthening Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in a speech today at the National Press Club. Rand discussed findings from AARP Public Policy Institute's newly released "Middle Class Security Project," which studies how middle class working Americans struggle - and often fail - to build and maintain retirement security.
Adrift on a sea of red ink, more middle class Americans are feeling queasy about their retirement plans. And many of those struggling to save have very little time to right the ship.
This is not a good idea. The New York Times is shutting down its environment desk. The justification for closing the desk is that the environmental beat is no longer siloed.
In his State of the State yesterday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo laid out his plan to make the state a clean tech leader. Cuomo proposed extending a program to increase solar panel installations for homes and businesses and investing in an electric car network with statewide charging stations and incentives to build charging infrastructure.
Back in the spring, we pointed out that the previous 12 months from May 2011 - April 2012 was the hottest on record. Then, in July, we highlighted how over 3,000 temperature records had been broken within the first 10 days of the month.
A new analysis of state spending on higher education finds that states with a diverse economy, low unemployment, and a history of support for higher education are likely to maintain public spending on colleges. Conversely, states that do not have those characteristics have a hard time overcoming fiscal challenges to create a robust system of higher education.
Given his long record of climate advocacy, John Kerry’s nomination for Secretary of State is a sign that climate change may receive more attention in the second Obama Administration. In addition to co-sponsoring a cap-and-trade bill in the Senate, Kerry made it a point in his presidential campaign to deride the Bush Administration’s lack of belief in climate change.
Though technology and innovation have squeezed trading costs, the industry's profits are accounting for a bigger share of U.S. GDP, a former Goldman banker says, needlessly diverting some $635 bln from the broader economy. It lends credence to ideas like a transaction tax.
Last week, I wrote about how strong majorities of Americans not only believe the climate is changing but also that human activity is causing it. Congressional inaction, therefore, ignores the priorities and concerns of the majority. However, while the oil and gas lobby does heavily influence Congress’ actions, is its inaction also a result of the lack of climate change policy as a priority for most Americans?
A new poll finds that nearly 80 percent of Americans think global warming is occurring and will be a significant problem if nothing is done to address it. Among those surveyed, the AP-GfK poll found that over 60 percent of people who trust scientists a little or not at all said that temperatures were increasing -- a 14 point jump from 2009. The poll also found that large majorities across the political spectrum believe that the planet is warming.
Eric Scheiderman is leading a seven state coalition to bring suit against the EPA for failing to address methane emissions from the oil and gas industry -- a violation of the Clean Air Act.
To hear the media tell it, all eyes are on the fiscal cliff. Which side is compromising and which side isn't? Which side's numbers add up? How can votes in the House and the Senate be structured for maximum political gain? What will the deal ultimately be? And, most important, which side will win and which side will lose? Is this great drama gripping the entire nation? Actually, only Washington and the media are transfixed.
The latest UN climate talks came to an end this past weekend with little to show for it. As Kate Sheppard writes at Mother Jones, Doha “failed to meet even the low expectations that had been set for the negotiations.” One of the main pieces to come out was an agreement to extend the Kyoto Protocol, the only binding treaty on greenhouse gases, for eight years.
Before the Great Recession, the financial sector had consistently been eating up a greater and greater share of the economy. In 2007, it accounted for a whopping 40 percent of corporate profits. Before 1950, the financial sector made up less than 3 percent of GDP; now it makes up more than 8 percent.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Massachusetts Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren is likely to focus her efforts on the Senate Banking Committee in areas that go far beyond her bread-and-butter expertise in consumer protection, analysts say.
Four-year-old John Kaykay is a serious and quiet boy—“my thoughtful one,” his dad calls him. When the official greeters at the front door of the McClure early-childhood center in Tulsa welcome him with their clipboards and electric cheer—“Good morning, John! How are you today?”—he just slowly nods his small chin in their direction. When he gets to Christie Housley’s large, sunny classroom, he focuses intensely on signing in, writing the four letters of his name with a crayon as his dad crouches behind him.
It's widely known that the U.S. is way out of step with the rest of the world in not having paid maternity leave. We are now one of only three nations—rich and poor - that don't guarantee job-protected time off with some amount of income after the birth of a child.
As deficit talks continue to make little progress, we should revisit how a carbon tax would not only help raise badly needed revenue but could also be essential to fighting the climate crisis. A recent Congressional Research Service report found that a tax of $20 per metric ton of carbon dioxide would generate enough revenue to cut the 10-year budget deficit in half.
It is really terrific to see retailers here giving critical attention to the Demos study. As a former business owner in the health services industry, I do realize that these problems are more than just abstract theory. That's one of the reasons why Demos and I thought it would be useful to evaluate the possibilities for adopting this business model across the retail sector, especially as the importance of retail to the US economy continues to grow.