Representative Keith Ellison held a press conference yesterday outside the Capital building in Washington, D.C. to announce the reintroduction of a bill that would tax financial transactions on Wall Street. The Inclusive Prosperity Act, which was first introduced last year and is supported by many economists, would implement a 0.5 percent tax on speculation and derivates and would reel in more than $300 billion a year in revenue.
In North Carolina you can buy a gun without a background check, but according to a bill recently passed by the state legislature, the same shouldn't be true for receiving food stamps and other forms of government assistance.
A few weeks ago, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said that a key provision of the Voting Rights Act was motivated by a "perpetuation of racial entitlement."
A few weeks ago, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scaliasaid that a key provision of the Voting Rights Act was motivated by a "perpetuation of racial entitlement."
The President’s attention in his proposed budget to the challenges faced by unemployed young workers is encouraging. His proposal for a “Pathways Back to Work Fund” would make $12.5 billion available to create and/or subsidize jobs for younger as well as older unemployed workers.
It’s been a good week for the 23,000 people who work for one U.S. retail chain. Even as the national economy continued to plod along and the unemployment rate remained disturbingly high, Hobby Lobby announced it is upping its minimum hourly wage to $14 for full-time employees and $9.50 for part-time workers.
After a bruising election in which their standard-bearer became a symbol of wealth and privilege, Republicans are emerging as born-again champions of the common people. The latest proposal in the House, the “Working Families Flexibility Act,” is billed as a pro-worker proposal that will let mom bank comp time so she can take a family vacation later. But for such a worker-friendly idea, the bill has attracted support from strange quarters.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Corporate Reform Coalition calls on newly confirmed SEC Chair Mary Jo White to act now to require disclosure of corporate political spending. A record-breaking 500,000 investors and members of the public have submitted comments supporting the rule, demonstrating the importance of this issue. Chair White should seize this pivotal opportunity to safeguard shareholders by providing them with information necessary for their investing decisions.
A new report from the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) is advocating a 36 percent interest cap rate that would alleviate the personal debt crisis in the United States.
One of the main arguments used to justify fracking is that due to the increased supply of natural gas, the price of natural gas is falling and electricity generation is shifting towards using natural gas and away from using coal. Fracking proponents also point to a decline in overall greenhouse gas emissions as a result of natural gas use. But, if natural gas really is so cheap and we are producing more of it, why aren’t electricity prices decreasing?
Like many New Yorkers, Hazel B. of Queens struggled to get by after she was laid off from her job as an accounts receivable administrator. A single mother of two, Hazel relied on credit cards to make ends meet while she looked for work.
Finally, she found a job opening that looked promising. She went on two interviews and took a test given by the potential employer. She believed she had performed well, but then word came back that Hazel would not be hired because of negative information in her credit report.
President Obama’s nomination of Ernest Moniz for secretary of energy is a serious blow to environmentalists. Appearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources yesterday, Moniz strongly supported an “all-of-the-above” strategy and emphasized that lowering the cost of energy should be the United States’ top priority.
Krugman speculates that they see this as a morality play wherein the rich are obviously the virtuous heroes (being rich and all) and the plebes are a bunch of lazy, immoral parasites who refuse to carry their weight. I think he's probably right, but I'm going to speculate further that for many of them this is a result of guilt at their own gargantuan selfishness and greed. I can only imagine that it's hard to live with yourself when you're taking more and more of the wealth that humans create while everyone else is falling behind.
A new report looks at the voting patterns in the last election of the fastest growing racial groups in the U.S.—Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). A collaborative effort between Asian American Justice Center, Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, and National Asian American Survey, the report presents results from the 2012 Asian American and Pacific Islander Post-Election Survey, the largest nationally representative survey of Asian American and Pacific Islander voters in 2012.
As the rising cost of college puts a financial squeeze on students and their families, young people are encouraged to see student loans as an investment that leverages the mounting costs of attendance against a shot at greater lifetime earnings.