A fraudulent appraisal "can lead homeowners to borrow more money than their homes are worth, putting themselves at risk of being 'upside down' in a home -- e.g. not being able to sell for a high enough price to pay off their mortgage," according to a briefing paper on appraisal fraud put out by Demos, a New York-based think tank.
According to the advocacy group Demos, the average balance among lower- and middle-income households is $8,650.
"World News Tonight's" special series "Credit Crunch" aims to help you get on the road to becoming debt free.
Draut argues that "with the possible exception of having a larger array of entertainment and other goods to purchase, members of Generation X appear to be worse off by every measure" than prior generations.
Robert Frank, an economist at Cornell University, for instance, found that in counties with the widest income gaps, rates of personal bankruptcy and divorce rates were higher than average.
It’s broad allegations of voter fraud like these that are “going to have an impact on voters’ experience at the polls,” said Tova Wang, elections reform expert and Senior Democracy Fellow at Demos, a liberal public policy research and advocacy organization. “We’ve already seen a lot of incidents where allegations are getting tossed about and voter fraud is called an epidemic.
New York Times columnist Bob Herbert has earned the Levees.org 'Seal of Approval' for his portrayal of the flooding of New Orleans in a recent column about crumbling American infrastructure.
New York Times columnist Bob Herbert has earned the Levees.org 'Seal of Approval' for his portrayal of the flooding of New Orleans in a recent column about crumbling American infrastructure.
Then came Florida, where thousands of voters confused by Palm Beach County's ballot design in the 2000 elections voted for the wrong presidential candidate, or for two candidates by mistake. The most common error: voters casting ballots for both Democrat Al Gore and Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan, indicating that they made a mistake the first time. Republican George W. Bush ultimately won the state by 537 votes.
Amidst the fears, voting experts say they want to make sure that those who become poll watchers know the rules of the polling place so legitimate voters are not unfairly challenged.
"We just want to make sure that everyone is clear on the rules -- that voters know their rights, that these groups know what they are and aren't allowed to do," said Tova Wang, Senior Democracy Fellow at Demos.
Eliminating the deadline and allowing same-day registration would boost voter turnout among underrepresented groups and increase overall voting rates, according to Demos, a nonpartisan think tank. Its researchers found that voter turnouts would have increased by 12.3 percent for 18- to 25-year-olds, 11 percent for Latinos, 8.7 percent for African-Americans and 6.8 percent overall if New York State had same-day registration during the 2000 election.
“A lot of their procedures seem to be deficient on their face,” said Scott Novakowski, one of the report’s authors and a fellow with Demos, a New York City-based public policy research group. “Very rarely do we see declines of that size in a state that has been in compliance.”
Already, some states are making changes. A legal settlement in Missouri led to more than 200,000 voter-registration applications from welfare offices in less than two years. A settlement in Ohio has led to more than 100,000 this year. Lawsuits are pending in Indiana and New Mexico.
Regulators can cap leverage if bank poses 'grave threat' to system
Speier, who allowed that the overall bill is good, added that the rationale behind a detailed leverage cap is to keep big banks from growing so dangerously large that, if they were to fail, they'd cause collateral damage to the markets. During the height of the boom leading up to the financial crisis, many investment banks hiked their leverage to as high as 50-to-1.
Demos reports that in 2008 over 11 million low-income adult citizens remained unregistered to vote and the registration gap between low-income and high-income citizens was over 19 percentage points. And changes in how voter registration is done at public assistance agencies can has already shown dramatic results in other states.
In Ohio registration at public assistance agencies has soared following a settlement of a Demos case over compliance with federal voter registration laws at public assistance agencies.
The resolution authority proposal is "a bit of a red herring" when it comes to credible ways to end TBTF, said Heather McGhee, Washington director of Demos, a public policy organization. It won't work, she said.
The Census Bureau should be commended for taking action. "For too long, communities with large prisons have received greater representation in government on the backs of people who have no voting rights in the prison community," said Brenda Wright, director of the Democracy Program at Demos, a research and advocacy organization. "The Census Bureau's new data will greatly assist states and localities in correcting this injustice."
The Merkley-Levin proposal would target major Wall Street banks, such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, which became bank holding companies in 2008 at the height of the financial crisis.
Industry lobbyists and congressional aides have suggested, however, that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley could shed their bank holding companies and in the future escape the outright ban. They would still be subject to potentially higher capital requirements set by the Fed.
Demos, headquartered in New York City, grew out of a series of meetings of scholars, activists, journalists and elected officials who were concerned about the ever-increasing influence of the right on public policy. "The thinking was that there should be more moderate, liberal and left-of-center voices," said Miles Rapoport, the group's president. The group was formed in 2000, a year that would later see the disputed election that gave the presidency to Mr. Bush.
One person, one vote? Not in Connecticut. Not in most places.
When the bill had its first hearing at the Capitol last week, only one person testified. Brenda Wright, who works for Demos, a research and policy organization, told the judiciary committee that "crediting incarcerated people to the wrong location has the unfortunate and undemocratic result of creating a system of ‘representation without population.'"