Analysis and Opinion from Demos

As Economy Trails, Women Can Propel U.S. to the Leaderboard by Linda Tarr-Whelan

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:47:00 EST

A solid societal challenge lies in front of us. We can't waste any more time thinking this is a marginal women's issue. Goldman Sachs research shows that the GDP would rise 9% if women's employment and wages were equal to men. As the majority of college and graduate school graduates, the overwhelming purchasers of consumer products and the driving force of job creation as entrepreneurs, women are the most underutilized natural resource we have to jumpstart economic growth.

Originally Published: Huffington Post

Weathervane Week by Robert Kuttner

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:04:00 EST

Just before the Super Bowl, Obama said that he will hold a televised summit on health care with the Republicans. What, exactly, does this mean? The idea of a genuinely bipartisan health care bill is defunct. But Obama seems wedded to the illusion that Republicans are actually interested in reasoning together -- as opposed to doing whatever they can to crush him. How much more of this will it take before Obama and the Democrats grasp that bipartisanship is a dead letter, a lousy tactic, and a sign of presidential weakness?

Originally Published: Huffington Post

Funding Higher Education is Good for Job Creation by Viany OrozcoJennifer Wheary

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:08:00 EST

A new report, Graduated Success: Sustainable Economic Opportunity Through One- and Two-Year Credentials highlights how the field of study chosen by students matters a lot in terms of the economic value and employability of a postsecondary education. The report also shows that finishing a community college credential, even a one-year certificate, is often a smarter bet than going for broke and borrowing huge amounts and not completing a four-year degree.

In particular, one- and two-year credentials in engineering and in health care can deliver higher salaries than bachelors degrees in other fields - for tuition costs that are lot less.

According to the report, forty-three percent of those who hold a certificate as their highest degree earn a median annual salary that is higher than that earned by someone holding an associates degree. And twenty-seven percent of those holding a community college certificate as their highest degree earn a median annual salary that is higher than someone holding a bachelors degree. Nearly a third (31 percent) of associates degree holders earn more than someone holding a bachelors degree.

Students awarded one- or two-year certificates earn median annual salaries that are $8,000 a year more than those who leave school with no post-secondary award.

The salaries earned by those with community college certificates in engineering and health care ($47,000 and $46,000 respectively), are close to what bachelors degree holders in the social or natural sciences earn, and are actually more than what someone holding a bachelors degree in education earns.

National job trends also point to bright prospects for students seeking careers with a community college credential in hand. From 2006 to 2016, job growth for associate degree holders was projected to be at 19 percent, nearly double the average for all workers. The health care sector was expected to generate more new jobs by the end of this period than any other industry, and the engineering field also looked rosey.

Originally Published: The Hill

Voter Suppression in 2010: It Begins Again by Tova Andrea Wang

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:09:00 EST

At least nine states and a city in Massachusetts (of all places!) are considering bills introduced in January 2010 that make identification requirements for voting more strict and/or require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. As usual, the debates are partisan. This is particularly true in South Carolina where it is estimated that 178,000 South Carolinians do not have the photo identification they would need to vote under the proposal.

Originally Published: TPMCafe

Obama's Proposed "Small Business" Initiative Lacks Audacity (and Focus) by Chris Rabb

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:52:00 EST

The reality is, the value of the term of art "small business" is only political in nature; "smallness" suggests local, Mom-n-Pop, salt-of-the-earth, when in fact the one million small businesses President Obama proposed to help out in his address through a $30 billion investment of tax-payer money are not really representative of most small or new ventures.

In fact, three out of every four businesses have no employees at all! So, the vast majority of the businesses in our nation have zero employees with very little likelihood of ever hiring one. Perhaps that's why the average business size boasts a mere five employees.

The one million businesses Obama proposed assisting obtain bank loans to stay afloat are likely the same approximately one million firms that represent for-profit enterprises with ten or more employees on their payroll.

Originally Published: Huffington Post

What Obama Really Said: An A-to-Z Guide for Dummies by Rich Benjamin

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:27:00 EST

Afghanistan ("Gays should have the right to die there.")
Bailouts ("I know, like a root canal.")
Corporations ("They are not people, too!")
Deficit Reduction ("Political cover to win independents!")
Education and Energy Policy ("Our best defense against China.")
Future Generations ("Remember them?")
Geithner ("I rather talk about Jeremiah Wright.")
Healthcare Reform ("I will not be bowed.")
Immigration Reform ("Let's punt. See above.")
Jobs Bill ("On my desk without delay.")
K Street ("Worse than even Wall Street.")
Lost Decade ("AKA Republican Voodoo Economics.")
Middle Class ("SOS. Endangered species.")
Nobel Prize ("Seems like forever ago...")
Obesity ("Michelle is on it, America's Fat Kids Scourge.")
Permanent Campaign ("Crippling you cowards.")
Qaueda, Al ("On the run.")
Recovery Act ("Not so bad after all.")
Small Businesses ("The new, new Socc-ckey Mom.")
Tea Baggers ("I don't quit.")
Unions ("I rather talk about Tim Geithner.")
Values ("Dancin' the electric slide to the political center!")
Washington ("For Shame.")
Xtradition and Enhanced Interrogation Tactics ("I rather talk about root canals.")
Yes, we still can!
Zen ("Still got it.")

Originally Published: Huffington Post

Mixed Signals by Robert Kuttner

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:56:00 EST

The loss of Ted Kennedy's former senate seat seems to have gotten the president's attention. Obama is belatedly getting in touch with his anger, as it were. He has turned up the rhetorical heat against the banks. But will he walk the talk? So far, the signals are mixed. With the State of the Union Address getting drafted and re-drafted, debates are still raging inside the White House: Should Obama, after the Massachusetts wake-up call, be more conciliatory, or more feisty; more progressive or more centrist?

Originally Published: Huffington Post

The Anatole France First Amendment of Citizens United? by Brenda Wright

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:27:00 EST

With today's decision in Citizens United, the Roberts Court has proudly unveiled the Anatole France First Amendment. "The law, in its majestic impartiality, forbids the rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges and beg in the streets," Anatole France famously wrote. After today, the First Amendment, in its majestic impartiality, will allow ordinary citizens and massive corporations alike to spend as much as they desire to elect their preferred candidates to office.

Originally Published: ACSblog

King Would Tell Obama to Be Bold by Rich Benjamin

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:10:00 EST

The enormity and uncertainty haunting this recession raises important questions that King's spirit could address. What is the impact on unemployed and low-income Americans? Will the fear of projected budget deficits force government spending choices that worsen poverty or that are racially loaded, in their stinginess toward cities?

Like King, Obama recognizes that government isn't the principal solution to unemployment and poverty, but rather a buffer from hardship and a catalyst for opportunity.

Originally Published: CNN

A Wake Up Call by Robert Kuttner

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 11:55:00 EST

How could the health care issue have turned from a reform that was going to make Barack Obama ten feet tall into a poison pill for Democratic senators? Whether or not Martha Coakley squeaks through in Massachusetts on Tuesday, the health bill has already done incalculable political damage and will likely do more. Polls show that the public now opposes it by margins averaging ten to fifteen points, and widening. It is hard to know which will be the worse political defeat--losing the bill and looking weak, or passing it and leaving it as a piñata for Republicans to attack between now and November.

Originally Published: Huffington Post

Small Change: Why Business Won't Save the World by Michael Edwards

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:34:00 EST

Why am I so critical of the philanthrocapitalist revolution? First, it erodes the independence of non-profits and makes it more difficult for them to hold business and government accountable for their actions, or push them to do the things they don't want to do. Second, it threatens the distinctive values of civil society which are based on cooperation and commitment, not the ethics of the marketplace, values that have spurred the creation of social movements from the abolition of slavery to pro-democracy protests in Iran. And third, it privatizes the way we solve collective problems and gives too much power to those who have little or no accountability to the public. That's got to be bad for democracy. It's great that business has a social conscience, but that doesn't give them any right to decide how our schools should be reformed.

Originally Published: A Touch of Grey

If MLK Were Around, He Wouldn't Care About Racial Brushfires in the Media--He'd Be Talking About Poverty by Rich Benjamin

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:59:00 EST

Rather than thoughtfully discussing our political problems, including race, Americans love to reduce the conversation to feelings and etiquette. It's the personal and dramatic aspects of race that obsess us, not the deeply rooted and currently active, political inequalities. That's our predicament: Racial debate, in public and private, is trapped in the sinkhole of therapeutics.

Originally Published: AlterNet

Why Can't We Get Anyone to Ask a Wall St. CEO the Hard Questions? by Nomi Prins

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:20:00 EST

Articles and blogs are flooding the net, summarizing and dissecting the opening Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission's chat with the four CEOs presiding over the strongest (read: luckiest recipients of Federal generosity during their most troubled times) banks in the country, Lloyd Blankfein from Goldman Sachs, Jamie Dimon from JPM Chase, John Mack from Morgan Stanley, and Brian Moynihan from Bank of America (Citigroup didn't make the cut).

The CEO's punted every single question on anything that mattered in terms of the link between their practices and the crisis (the entire point of the commission). They deflected questions on leverage, trading revenue breakdowns, and on the amount of standard OTC derivatives (over-the-counter, think generic pharmaceuticals) vs. non-standard ones (that the bankers referred to as ‘bespoke', basically tailored think expensive exotic pharmaceuticals.) The equivalent of the dog ate my homework excuse was given no reprimand, just a polite, okay, well get back to us when you have that information.

Originally Published: AlterNet

Start the New Year with the Power of One by Linda Tarr-Whelan

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:29:00 EST

You can make a difference in 2010 to open up opportunities for our children - and ourselves - to move as far as our talents and passions take us. Often, unnecessary obstacles seem to stand in the way, like old-fashioned and outdated styles in the workplace, make our lives more about juggling than balancing. Keeping all the balls in the air forces us to make hard choices between what is good for the family and what is good for a career. It can leave us feeling like change is impossible.

I'm convinced it doesn't have to be this way. The impossible to imagine - a country where we actually value both raising a family and climbing up the career ladder-can become inevitable when we harness the unique experience and talents of moms. Personal action--the Power of One--is as essential as advocacy to get from where we are today to where we want to be. The beginning of a New Year is just the time to get started.

Originally Published: MomsRising.org

Learning from Lieberman by Robert Kuttner

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 14:51:00 EST

If the health care bill goes down, the far right will add another notch to their belt, the media will paint Obama as a loser, and Obama will be even more cautious and pro-corporate going forward. If he wins, maybe he'll be a little bolder and maybe progressives can call in some IOUs. But that doesn't mean progressives in the House should just roll over and back the Senate bill. House progressives need to play the same kind of legislative hardball as turncoats like Joe Lieberman.

Originally Published: Huffington Post

Pockets of White America Are in the Throes of an Existential Crisis by Rich Benjamin

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:15:00 EST

Our country's Obama-era racial politics rarely mentions race in debate, though it lodges race just under the surface of "nonracial" issues: taxes, health care reform, immigration, public spending. There is a slim silver lining to the economic slump: It may inspire a greater commitment toward our nation's common good and more confidence in the public sector. For too long, an anti-government, race-tinged mindset has corroded belief in "one nation for all," while fertilizing conservative myths that "explain" the economic meltdown and rebuke President Obama's recovery agenda: "too much government regulation," "high taxes," "wasteful spending," and "undeserving welfare recipients."

Originally Published: AlterNet

Time for U.S. Senate to Act on U.N. Women's Treaty by Linda Tarr-Whelan

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:29:00 EST

Adopting the women's treaty would provide a spotlight on progress, a self-assessment tool and the incentive to do better. Eighty-three countries have proportionally more women in Congress than we do. The gender wage gap saps the family purse. Paid family leave, standard practice in the rest of the industrialized world, remains out of reach.

With CEDAW in place, U.S. women's rights champions could face our government with a new level of accountability.

Virtually every other country has joined this global cooperative effort. Activists and governments on every continent use this universal women's treaty to advance and empower women.

The United States, however, stands shoulder to shoulder with the only outliers who have not ratified CEDAW--Sudan, Iran, Somalia and a few small island nations.

Internationally, although we "talk the talk" and sometimes "walk the walk," our absence as partners on gender equality shortchanges women.

Originally Published: Huffington PostWomen's eNews

The Global Middle Class is Here: Now What? by Jennifer Wheary

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:43:00 EST

Some 400 million people entered the middle class in the 1980s; a thoroughly respectable number, but only a prelude to current conditions. With an additional 1.2 billion people since the early 1990s, the global middle class--in terms of size and percentage of the population--is larger than ever. Forecasts for future growth, even in the face of the current economic crisis, are equally sunny. By 2020, it is projected that more than half of the world's population will belong to the middle class.

The expectation for what the new mid- dle class will achieve is monumental-to make the world a better place, and a more profitable one at that. Part consumer group and part social force, the new middle class is seen as a symbol of the steady retreat of poverty; an engine of the global economy; a creator of jobs; a new consumer market; a spur for nations to invest in public infrastructure, roads, and schools; and an advocate for social stability, or in some cases, wholesale political change.

Originally Published: World Policy Journal

America's Unfulfilled Promise to Women by Linda Tarr-Whelan

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:57:00 EST

Human rights should not be a partisan issue. But the loud voices of a small opposition have made our leaders cautious. Maybe if we had the critical mass of 30 percent women in Congress instead of the current 17 percent, it would be different. But we don't. That's why we need the president to end America's isolation from the global community on the human rights of women along with the other issues he has on his plate. It's that important.

Originally Published: Washington Post

Why the U.S. Needs More Women in Government by Linda Tarr-Whelan

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:34:00 EST

Why does CEDAW matter? Two reasons: its impact globally and locally. America's clout matters to women struggling for basics like owning property, attending school and facing rank discrimination every day (see www.womenstreaty.org). Its importance has been clear in San Francisco: CEDAW gives activists a set of clear benchmarks to press for change. Pressure for their governments to live up to CEDAW in Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand and Ukraine provided the backbone for laws to curb sexual trafficking. India developed national guidelines on workplace sexual assault. Nicaragua, Jordan, Egypt and Guinea have seen increases in literacy rates.

Originally Published: San Francisco Chronicle

Rebuilding the Wall by Nomi Prins

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:23:00 EST

The Obama administration is talking tough but acting tame with respect to Wall Street. But a pair of senators is coming out swinging. Today, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John McCain (R-AZ) are taking a step towards proactive reconstruction of the banking sector by introducing the Banking Integrity Act of 2009. The bill would reinstate provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, the New Deal-era law that built a wall between commercial banks and risky investment banking.

Originally Published: Daily Beast

A Nobel for a Post-American President by Rich Benjamin

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:08:00 EST

By awarding President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel committee is championing a "post-American" outlook that the president personifies. Its gamble stakes the prize's prestige on the hopes that its ennobled recipient will then achieve real diplomatic gains.

The committee insists that the medal acknowledges the president's achievements. But if you read between the lines, it is really applauding a sensibility: American cosmopolitanism.

Originally Published: CNN

Spotlight on Financial Reform by Gennady Kolker

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:21:00 EST

This week, the U.S. House is expected to vote on comprehensive financial regulatory reform legislation, incorporating at least nine pieces of legislation that address key failures within the U.S. financial system--everything from stronger consumer protections to measures to end “Too Big to Fail” and prevent future bailouts.

Key elements in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 4173) include the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) to regulate consumer products like credit cards and mortgages; reform of specific industries like derivatives markets, credit rating agencies, insurance companies and hedge funds; and developing structures to deal with systemic failures that would put an end to the notion of “too big to fail”. Demos has been working in partnership with over 200 groups in a coalition called Americans for Financial Reform, to ensure passage of a robust bill.

Originally Published: Ideas Action Blog

Trade as Climate Enforcer by David CallahanCristina Vasile

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:00:00 EST

The criteria for trade benefits have evolved over the years to include new conditions that reflect U.S. economic and foreign policy priorities, such as respect for labor standards and intellectual property rights. But the environment has been conspicuously absent from these criteria.

Now is the time to correct that omission. Specifically, the [Generalized System of Preferences] should be amended to stipulate that beneficiary countries enforce all global environmental treaties they are party to, as well as uphold their domestic environmental laws.

Congress has a chance to act immediately to make this change because the current version of the GSP is set to expire at the end of this month. By voting to include environmental criteria in the GSP, Congress can send a message — both to the U.S. public and to the world — that the United States is serious about enforcing a climate treaty.

Originally Published: The Hill

A Tale of Two Obamas by Robert Kuttner

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:56:00 EST

I was pleasantly surprised to be invited to the White House jobs summit last Thursday, where I got to watch President Obama engage with about 130 people off the cuff. And I was reminded, first hand, what drew so many of us to the promise of this remarkable outsider -- the decency, the intellect, the idealism, and the evidently progressive impulses. I came away even more bewildered and dismayed at the reality that this president, who could have been such an insurgent at a moment demanding insurgency, has been so utterly captured by the Wall Street elite, the health insurance industry elite, and the military elite.

So, when my turn came to ask a question, I pressed President Obama on the issue, and he did not disappoint me.

Robert Kuttner: You know, most of the things that have been proposed today cost money. And there is this concern about the federal deficit. I hope that your administration will recognize, as I know you will, that it's possible, first of all, to reduce the deficit over time and sometimes in the short run realize that you need to increase the deficit. I hope the concern about the deficit in the long run doesn't crowd out the need for additional spending in the short run.

And I also think that some of these programs that increase jobs and increase GDP are probably the fastest way to get the economy back on a track that will reduce the deficit over time. It's certainly a better way to reduce the deficit than putting ourselves into a debtor's prison, and assume we can deflate our way to recovery.

President Obama:...

Originally Published: Huffington Post

10 Reasons Bernanke Should Be Fired by Nomi Prins

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:36:00 EST

Bernanke, who goes before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday in a bid to be confirmed to a second term, still wants us to believe he "done good" by cleaning up the financial mess that was created on his watch. But here are 10 reasons Bernanke shouldn't be reconfirmed:

Originally Published: Daily Beast

The Internet Must Not Become a Segregated Community by Chris Rabb

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:07:00 EST

The Internet provides our communities with a medium to access services, find jobs, connect to friends, make inexpensive international phone calls to family members, and to advocate for social change. Many of the most valuable things we do online are noncommercial; they exist because the Internet is the first mass media system with no gatekeepers to dole out privilege to the highest bidder. That freedom and openness is what makes the Internet different from broadcasting and cable. We can't allow Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and other broadband providers to deliver substandard Internet service to our communities.

Originally Published: Huffington Post

Recovery and Debt: Squaring The Circle by Robert Kuttner

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:43:00 EST

We do need to reduce the ratio of debt to GDP. But we need to do it after the economy is back in recovery. And we need to do it using the normal legislative process. And above all, we need to use progressive taxation rather than program cuts. Two good candidates for revenue raisers are a tax on all financial transactions and a serious program of tax enforcement aimed at wealthy investors and corporations who use offshore tax havens. Supposedly, we are helpless in the face of the ability of capital to move offshore. We dare not tax financial transactions for fear of driving the business to Caribbean tax havens. But this is just self-serving rationalization.

Originally Published: Huffington Post

Wall Street Meets Its Match by Robert Kuttner

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST

In the showdown over the regulation of potentially toxic securities like credit-default swaps, the savviest and toughest battler for effective legislation turns out to be not Barney Frank or Chris Dodd, who chair the key House and Senate financial committees. Surprisingly, the best informed and most relentless crusader is a back-bench senator from Washington state, Maria Cantwell. If you want to see how one determined junior legislator can make a difference, Cantwell is your woman.

Originally Published: American Prospect