AARP announced a major policy and research initiative Tuesday drawing attention to the economic decline of the American middle class. In the run-up to what will surely be a bruising Congressional battle over Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other federal benefit programs, the powerful seniors' group said it would push for strengthened supports for all generations.
The head of AARP warned Tuesday that cost-of-living adjustments in Social Security would jeopardize the retirement security of many seniors.
A. Barry Rand, in a speech at the National Press Club, laid out his group's agenda as Washington heads into another showdown over the debt ceiling.
Rand repeated AARP's opposition to moving to the so-called chained consumer price index (CPI), calling it "one of the worst" ways to reduce spending in Social Security.
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.
US labor markets ended 2012 with a whimper, as Friday’s release of the December unemployment numbers showed all major indicators essentially unchanged.
New York -- In response to the late night passage of a tax deal by the US House of Representatives, Miles Rapoport, president of the national nonpartisan public policy organization Demos released the following statement:
"It is in the nature of a complicated bipartisan agreement that it looks very different depending on what prism you look at it through. Two elements are critically important: what is actually in the bill that passed and the President will sign, and how its passage ‘sets up’ the future fiscal debates.
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.
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 Coalition for Sensible Safeguards has produced a report detailing five areas in which protections significantly help make the December and New Year festivities a safer and more joyful experience.
NEW YORK — Miles Rapoport, President of national policy organization Demos, released the following statement in response to Michigan’s State House and Senate suddenly passing bills Thursday to defund unions and undermine the ability of working people to organize for better pay and benefits:
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.
NEW YORK -- The United States faces a retirement crisis that threatens future retirees and the next generation of workers. The voluntary employer-sponsored retirement system covers fewer and fewer Americans, often leaving Social Security, originally intended as a supplement to other forms of retirement, as the major source of income for 40 percent of older Americans. Even workers still covered by an employer retirement plan have had their benefits weakened.
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.
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.