Latest Work from Demos

Next Generation Democracy: What the Open-Source Revolution Means for Power, Politics, and Change

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 20:23:00 EST

The Color of Debt: Credit Card Debt by Race and Ethnicity

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:39:00 EST

Recent federal action, including the passage of the Credit Card Bill of Rights of 2009 and the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, provided needed regulation and oversight of the credit card industry. However, past debt continues to haunt families even as they add on new debt. The findings below, from the 2008 Credit Card Debt Household Survey of Low-and Middle-Income Households, demonstrates that the means used by consumers of color to pay down debt further chips away at their economic viability.

Fortunes of Change: The Liberal Rich and the Remaking of America

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:09:00 EST

In his new book, Demos co-founder and senior fellow David Callahan contends that something big is happening among the rich in America: they're drifting to the left. When Callahan set out to write a book on the new upper class, he expected to profile a greedy and reactionary elite-the robber barons of a second Gilded Age. Instead, he discovered something else. While many of the rich still back a GOP that stands against taxes and regulation, liberalism is spreading fast among the wealthy.

Fulfilling the Promise: Expanding Voter Registration of Low-Income Citizens Under the National Voter Registration Act

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:21:00 EST

Work by Demos and its partners suggests that millions of low-income Americans can be brought into the political process through proper implementation of an often-neglected provision of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) that requires states to provide voter registration services to applicants and recipients of public assistance benefits. And the time is ripe to ensure that voter registration is provided at public assistance offices: Many public assistance programs are experiencing significant growth, with participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ("SNAP", formerly Food Stamps), one of the largest programs, now at an all-time high, having increased dramatically over the past year.

As the full effect of the economic downturn is felt throughout the country and increasing numbers of individuals turn to public assistance, the NVRA has never been more important for ensuring that low-income citizens have a voice in the democratic process.

Expanding Voter Registration for Low Income Ohioans: The Impact of the National Voter Registration Act

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:06:00 EST

Significantly, millions of low-income citizens could be brought into the political process each year by proper implementation of an often-neglected provision of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which requires states to provide voter registration services to low-income persons through public assistance offices. Ohio's experience-the subject of this report-provides a case in point, and offers valuable lessons both for advocates and for state officials seeking to encourage voter registration and achieve the full promise of the NVRA.

Financial Reform Roundup: Highlights of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:07:00 EST

Today, the Senate votes to pass the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, sending the landmark legislation to President Obama's desk for signature next week. The bill is not perfect, but it will bring greater security to American consumers, investors and Main Street businesses. Most importantly, it turns the page on an era of misguided deregulation that has cost Americans 8 million jobs and trillions in lost household wealth. Demos has contributed to the reform effort with policy analysis and advocacy on three major issues.

A Citizen From Day One: A Proposal to Provide Voter Registration Services at Naturalization Ceremonies

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:28:00 EST

It may be a cliche that we are a nation of immigrants, but statistics show that it is as true today as in any other period in our history. And while Americans may debate the best way to bring noncitizens into the civic life of our communities, there is widespread, strong agreement that when someone from another country takes the affirmative step to take the oath of loyalty and become a citizen of this country, he should be welcomed and encouraged to be a part of our country and our social
and political life.

Emission Reduction Incentives: A Proposal to Use Tariff Cuts to Assist Climate Change Mitigation by Developing Countries [Summary]

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:27:00 EST

Wealthy nations, led by the United States, should move to reduce or eliminate all tariffs on imports from developing countries as one way to help offset the extraordinary costs these countries face in confronting climate change. If U.S. tariff policy continues on the current trajectory, the U.S. is likely to collect about $90 billion in import duties on products from developing countries, excluding China, by 2020.1 The combined total collected by the European Union, Japan, and other wealthy countries may exceed that amount. These projected duties constitute a vast pool of funds that can and should be tapped to help mobilize a decisive global response to climate change.

Emission Reduction Incentives: A Proposal to Use Tariff Cuts to Assist Climate Change Mitigation by Developing Countries

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:24:00 EST

Wealthy nations, led by the United States, should move to reduce or eliminate all tariffs on
imports from developing countries as one way to help offset the extraordinary costs these
countries face in confronting climate change. If U.S. tariff policy continues on the current
trajectory, the U.S. is likely to collect about $90 billion in import duties on products from
developing countries, excluding China, by 2020.1 The combined total collected by the European
Union, Japan, and other wealthy countries may exceed that amount. These projected duties
constitute a vast pool of funds that can and should be tapped to help mobilize a decisive global
response to climate change.

Environmental country reports: A Proposal for U.S. Global Environmental Monitoring [Summary]

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:21:00 EST

Environmental country reports: A Proposal for U.S. Global Environmental Monitoring [Working Paper]

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:15:00 EST

The United States should monitor the environmental records of countries worldwide and produce annual reports on each country. Such reports would be highly valuable to U.S. policymakers, but also to advocates, journalists, and ordinary citizens.

The Rating Agencies and the Franken Amendment: Key Questions and Answers

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:21:00 EST

Likely Impact of the US-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement on Workers: Guidance for how the U.S. should go forward to ensure that trade agreements with Colombia improves labor standards and worker rights.

Tue, 18 May 2010 12:24:00 EST

As Congress considers the ratification of the U.S. - Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, Colombia's labor situation has become the central obstacle to its passage. While most analysts agree that the FTA is relatively unimportant to the U.S. and will have "minimal to no effect on output or employment," it could have strong effects on Colombian workers. The following brief provides guidance for how Congress and the Obama Administration should go forward to ensure that the trade agreement with Colombia improves labor standards and worker rights in Colombia.

Risking Our Future Middle Class: Young Americans Need Financial Reform

Thu, 13 May 2010 12:39:00 EST

Young adults have an enormous stake in the financial regulatory reform debate. They have paid a high price for a banking crisis caused by lax regulation, and their economic futures will depend on rebuilding strong public structures for financial regulation going forward. This briefing paper addresses some of the key reforms and the impact of both the banking crisis and unregulated lending practices on young Americans' financial futures.

Reforming the Rating Agencies: A Solution that Fits the Problem

Wed, 12 May 2010 12:13:00 EST

The major credit rating agencies, Moody's, Standard & Poors, and Fitch, bear a heavy burden of responsibility for the financial meltdown. It was their seal of approval that enabled Wall Street to develop a multi-trillion-dollar market for bonds resting on a foundation of tricky loans and bubbly housing prices. Institutional investors around the world were seduced into buying these high-risk securities by credit ratings that made them out to be as safe as the most conventional corporate and municipal bonds.

Talking about Government: Summary of Findings

Thu, 06 May 2010 12:30:00 EST

Public Works began this far-reaching effort with groundbreaking analysis and thorough, multifaceted research that examined Americans' attitudes toward the public sector. This research, which was originally conducted in 2004–2005 by the FrameWorks Institute and re–tested in 2008–2009 by the Topos Partnership, was designed to uncover the dominant frames or stereotypes to which Americans default when they think about government and how those frames affect public choices. Ultimately, we wanted to know how to best reframe the concept of government in order to evoke a different way of thinking, one that advances collective understanding of – and support for – public sector solutions to society's challenges.

The research revealed both good news and significant challenges. Negative views of government are indeed dominant. While the roots of this cynicism run deep, the good news is that these views are not as entrenched as many believe. The public is open to–in fact hungry for–a more mission-driven, "common good" sense of the public sector and its role. The research reveals that focusing on enduring public values, talking about the systems and structures of government, and evoking “civic” thinking are productive and powerful ways to move Americans toward this more receptive and supportive view of government's role in society.

Severe Financial Insecurity Among African-American and Latino Seniors: Over nine out of 10 senior households of color do not have sufficient economic security to sustain themselves through their projected lives.

Thu, 06 May 2010 12:13:00 EST

Building on Living Longer on Less, the first report in a series examining the financial vulnerability of the elderly, this report examines the economic security of African-American and Latino senior households.

Building Ohio's Future Middle Class: Addressing the Challenges Facing Young Adults

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:03:00 EST

Today's young adults are coming of age in a tough economy, on the heels of 30 years of declining economic opportunity and security for all but the most affluent and most highly educated. These changes are quite evident in Ohio, where the once-mighty manufacturing sector that provided better-than-average jobs in the 1960s and 1970s has eroded, hitting young adults particularly hard. Although many of the levers of opportunity that once fueled and defined America's middle class have weakened or broken, a reorientation could restore opportunity and provide today's young adults with a more secure economic future.

This report provides a comprehensive portrait of today's young adults in Ohio and, where possible, compares their economic status to that of the previous generation. The term "young adults" in the report generally refers to 18- to 34-year-olds. The report is organized into four key areas: post- secondary education, employment and earnings, debt and assets and raising a family. It concludes with a set of policy recommendations that would help rebuild and restore the middle class.

The SAFE Banking Act: A Summary Background and FAQ

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:11:00 EST

Our financial system has become dominated by institutions that are "too big to fail." Moreover, as FDIC Chairman Bill Isaac has said, they are "too big to manage, and too big to regulate." MIT professor Simon Johnson and James Kwak, a researcher at Yale Law School, estimate in the past 15 years the six largest U.S. banks have grown in total assets from 17 to 63 percent of our overall GDP.

We must reduce this concentration of financial power if we are to end Too Big to Fail and the risk it poses to our economy. Trusting the same regulators who abdicated their responsibility in the lead-up to the financial crisis will leave us vulnerable to future financial crises. Despite the claims of the megabanks, there are no economies of scale that justify such massive banks, nor would U.S. multi-national corporate needs go unmet by smaller (though still very large) U.S. global banks.

The prudent solution is to shrink these institutions to a manageable size at which they can actually be effectively regulated. The idea of size caps is supported by Thomas Hoenig, President of the Kansas City Fed; Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve; Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England. Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Fed; former IMF economist Simon Johnson; Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research; financial bloggers Felix Salmon and Mike Konczal; and conservative commenter Arnold Kling of the National Review.

Letter to U.S. Senate Urging Support for SAFE Banking Act to Limit Size of Largest Financial Institutions:

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:11:00 EST

In several recent policy reports, Demos has examined the rapid increase in the size and complexity of American financial firms, and the way in which these trends relate to the factors (skewed incentives, excessive risk-taking, conflicts of interest, and opaque accounting, among them) that lay at the heart of the financial meltdown. In the U.S. today, six financial firms - Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo - have combined assets equal to 60 percent of GDP. That is three times the holdings of these and their antecedent institutions fifteen years ago. The SAFE Banking Act--as part of strong, comprehensive financial reform - is a critical measure that will restore balance to our economy.

Women's Leadership and CEDAW: The Women's Treaty: The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women CEDAW, also known as the Women's Treaty, is an international agreement on basic human rights for women.

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:49:00 EST

Increasing Access in Hard Times: Women and the National Voter Registration Act

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:49:00 EST

The realities of women's economic status, exacerbated by the economic downturn make it especially important for low-income women to be able to exercise their full political clout. Yet, for a variety of reasons, their rates of voter registration-a threshold requirement in most states for the most fundamental means of political participation, voting-remain low: In 2008, almost one-third of low-income women were not registered to vote.

Paving the Way Through Paid Internships: A Proposal to Expand Educational and Economic Opportunities for Low-Income College Students

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:46:00 EST

In an increasingly competitive labor market, internships provide important and often necessary credentials for prospective job applicants. In spite of their value, the opportunity to pursue an internship is often limited by a student's socioeconomic status. The vast majority of non-profit and governmental internships are unpaid. For a student of modest means, this price tag--having to meet living expenses without an income--is often too great, particularly since some of the most prestigious unpaid internships are located in expensive cities.

In this brief, the authors outline the limitations of the current college internship system and lay out a proposal (The Student Opportunity Program) that would enable low-income college students to pursue paid internships at either non-profit organizations or in government.

Summary Judgement: United States v. State of New York

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:16:00 EST

The court finds that the New York public college and university system violates the National Voter Registration Act by failing to offer voter registration opportunities at those offices serving disabled students at the state's public universities and colleges, which the statute requires.

A Presidency in Peril: The Inside Story of Obama's Promise, Wall Street's Power, and the Struggle to Control our Economic Future

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:48:00 EST

In this hard-hitting, incisive account, Demos Distinguished Senior Fellow Robert Kuttner (author of the New York Times' Obama's Challenge Best-Selling) shares his unique, insider view of how the Obama administration not only missed its moment to turn our economy around-but deepened Wall Street's risky grip on America's future. Carefully constructing a one-year history of the problem, the players, and the outcome, Kuttner gives readers an unparalleled account of the president's first year.

More importantly, Kuttner shows how we could-with swift, decisive action-still enact real reforms, and how Barack Obama could redeem his promise.

Student Debt 101: Why College Students Are Burdened by Debt and What To Do About It

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:56:00 EST

As a college student, you are likely aware of how important a college degree is to your long-term economic success. You are probably also aware of how challenging it is to pay for your college education. What you may not know is that paying for a postsecondary degree has not always been so difficult and that it doesn't have to be.

Below is a brief overview of why paying for college has become so difficult, some suggestions for how to lower your own college costs and information on public policies that can make attending college more affordable.

Why We Need An Independent Consumer Protection Agency: With financial regulatory reform pending, Congress has the opportunity to rebuild the structures that will prevent another crisis and ensure broad-based economic growth.

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:28:00 EST

The time has come for the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. For thirty years, Washington has been captive to a governing philosophy that eschewed regulation in almost any form, arguing that the hand of government was best kept behind its back. But the era of deregulated finance has shown that without public structures to ensure accountability and fairness, the system can not sustain itself. The result of this failed experiment in deregulation has been a crisis costing Americans $11 trillion in family wealth, $14 trillion in taxpayer bailouts and over 8 million jobs.

Same Day Voter Registration in Maryland: Under the system proposed in Maryland, overall turnout could go up by 4.3%.

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:40:00 EST

Authors R. Michael Alvarez (California Institute of Technology) and Jonathan Nagler (New York University) have analyzed the likely impact on voter turnout should Maryland adopt Same Day Registration (SDR). Under the system proposed in Maryland, eligible voters who miss the current 21-day deadline for registering may be able to register to vote during the state's 7-day early voting period, or on Election Day. Consistent with existing research on the impact of SDR in the other states that use this process, the authors find that SDR would likely lead to substantial increases in voter turnout.

National Voter Registration Act: Expanding Voter Registration of Low-Income Citizens Under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:35:00 EST

While the United States has come a long way in expanding the franchise over the past 220 years, barriers to participation still exist and these barriers disproportionately impact low-income citizens. 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.

Research by Demos and its partners demonstrates that the compliance gaps found in states such as Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia reflect a nationwide problem.

A Dilution of Democracy: Prison-Based Gerrymandering: Ending prison-based gerrymandering will benefit urban and rural communities alike and help realize the ideal of one person, one vote that is core to American democracy.

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:10:00 EST

Every ten years, we conduct a national census that endeavors to make an accurate count of every single resident of the country. But in a distortion of this process, under current practice the Census Bureau counts incarcerated persons not in the community of their legal residence, but where they are imprisoned. Because census data are used to allocate congressional seats and seats in state and local legislatures, jurisdictions with large prisons and prison populations become eligible for greater representation in government on the backs of people who have no voting rights in the prison community and are not considered legal residents of the prison district for any other purpose.