Over the past decade, Demos has conducted extensive research on credit card debt among low- and middle-income households. As part of this research, we have become increasingly concerned with how families are being financially penalized for being in debt, making it difficult, if not impossible, for them to ever get out of debt. In 2012, we surveyed a nationally representative sample of about a thousand low- and middle-income households that were carrying credit card debt for three months or longer. I was the principal researcher on that study.
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.
Sixty years ago, the key sectors of Americans society -- business, labor, and government -- often worked well together to grow the U.S. economy. CEOs understood that giving workers a fair of the wealth they created was good business, since it motivated labor to do its absolute best. Elected officials of both parties understood that government's role was to fan growth by building the public structures that undergird prosperity -- like state university systems and the Interstate Highway System.
If you’ve ever been there, it won’t come as a surprise that Montana leads the nation in wind energy potential. Most of the state's sites are in low population and rural areas that are well-suited for wind development because there is not the same level of objection to visual impact and the areas would benefit from economic development. To support its wind industry, Montana’s Renewable Portfolio Standard requires regulated utilities to purchase 15 percent of their electricity supply from renewable sources by 2015.
Analyzing the enduring economic effects of youth unemployment, a new report by Demos outlines a serious job crisis, especially those with less education and individuals of color. Surveying a full year of U.S.
Unemployment rates for Americans under the age of 25 are the highest since the end of World War II. It's a situation that is unlikely to change anytime soon, according to a new report.
Since 2007, the average official unemployment rate for people under 25 has been 18 percent, 5.5 points higher than for the preceding 15 years, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures. This would seem to make the 16.2 percent rate for March look like an improvement.
The kids are not alright. So not alright, in fact, that about 45 percent of the nation’s unemployed are between the ages of 18 and 34, according to a recent report from Demos, a public policy organization. In addition to the more than 5.6 million young people who don’t have a job, there are about 4.7 million young employees who are underemployed or working in jobs for which they’re overqualified, the report found.
Once you get your hard-earned dollars into your 401(k), it’s painful to think they might not begetting you the highest return possible. Before you go any further, those who aren’t contributing regularly to a 401(k) or another type of tax-advantaged retirement account, such as a Traditional or Roth IRA, need to start now. While making that 10 or 15 percent contribution from your paycheck can be tough, there’s no excuse to not plan for supporting yourself in your old age.
In the past few years, there has been a disturbing push in a number of states toward limiting the right to vote and raising barriers to participation in democracy. Not in Connecticut. When it comes to ensuring an inclusive and fair democracy that guarantees every voice is heard, our state has been a real leader and taken important steps forward.
Massive fraud in the high-speed trading markets is escaping detection because regulators and exchanges are dithering on a powerful supercomputer to uncover the scams, The Post has learned.
And as retail investors begin dipping their toes back into stocks, now at record prices, the market watchdogs are asleep at the wheel.
An influential state lawmaker in North Carolina is launching an effort to make it harder for his state’s citizens to vote. It’s a development that should trouble voters, especially because North Carolina’s election process has been improving lately.
It's hard to say exactly why the labor market grew at such a tepid pace last month, adding just 88,000 jobs - not nearly enough to make a dent in the millions of unemployed or even keep up with population growth. Overall, though, it seems clear that consumers are still tapped out, with their incomes flat for years, and many of the new jobs being created lately are low-wage positions that don't leave people with much spending money.
This economy isn't out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot.
An influential state lawmaker in North Carolina is launching an effort to make it harder for his state’s citizens to vote. It’s a development that should trouble voters, especially because North Carolina’s election process has been improving lately.