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Image of a hand lowering a voter registration sheet into an orange box with stacks of voter registration papers on both sides

Threats to Ballot Access: New Report Examines Risks of Wrongful Voter Removals Across the Country

Dēmos examines ballot access issues, voter suppression in AZ, GA, OH, CA, IN, WI, MI, NC, TX, LA 

Press release/statement
August 10, 2023

We are changing the conversation around our democracy and economy by telling influential new stories about our country and its people. Get our latest blog and media updates here. For more in-depth explorations and analyses, visit our Resources page.

Featured
Ground level view of the Wall Street Stock Exchange

Unfinished Business: Revisiting Dodd-Frank and the Path to Economic Progress

On the anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act, we reflect on recent banking failures and the inequities inherent in our current financial system. 

Blog
Daniella Zessoules
Black mother and daughter looking at the city river

A Supreme Court Power Grab: Attacking Federal Agencies to Advance an Extremist Agenda

Why the Court's decision to limit the EPA's power to regulate water access is yet another case of eroding the power of the other branches of government at the expense of Black and brown people.

Blog
Ashley Tjhung
supreme court

Supreme Court's Rejection of Affirmative Action Widens the Divide: Dēmos Calls for Renewed Efforts to Combat Systemic Racism

“The 14th Amendment is supposed to be a shield against racism, and now it’s being used as a sword.” 

Press release/statement
Taifa Smith Butler

How to Talk About Low-Wage Work

Raising the pay of low-wage workers is becoming one of the top priorities of the progressive movement -- and a crucial test of that movement's strength. If Occupy Wall Street was a sprawling, diffuse howl against the new Gilded Age, the push to raise wages for retail and restaurant workers is a
Blog
David Callahan

Yes, He Can: Momentum Grows for an Executive Order to Raise Wages of Low-Paid Contract Workers

“Whatever executive authority I have to help the middle class, I’ll use it,” announced President Obama in last month’s landmark economic address in Galesburg Illinois. Now consensus seems to be building around one thing President Obama can indeed use his executive powers to do to boost hundreds of
Blog
Amy Traub

Were the Dictators Right?

For decades, the dictators of the Middle East basically gave the following rap to any westerner who questioned their tyrannical rule: You may not like us, but we're better than the alternatives. We're better than a democratic government that will inevitably be hijacked by Islamists. And we're better
Blog
David Callahan

In the Detroit Bankruptcy, There's Sacrifice But It's Not Shared

In the wake of the Detroit bankruptcy, there has been no shortage of finger pointing, blame, and calls for “shared sacrifice.” On a personal note, I love hearing the phrase “shared sacrifice” because what usually follows is a lot of sacrifice that is rarely shared. And, the case in Detroit is no
Blog
J. Mijin Cha

How Much Can We Oppose Unpaid Internships If We Love Volunteers?

The controversy over an unpaid intern listing at LeanIn.org, the new nonprofit created by Sheryl Sandberg, has been welcome, because it spotlights a growing consensus that unpaid internships are bad. All sorts of organizations will think twice after this episode about paying people nothing to do
Blog
David Callahan

How Companies Make Millions Off of a Few Seconds of Your Time Each Day

Verizon, AT&T and Sprint are facing heat for handing over their customers’ call records to the government. But it isn’t the only way that these phone companies are frustrating their customers – they also waste time and money by extending their prerecorded voicemail instructions.
Blog
Thomas Hedges

Spring Retail Sales Tell a Tale of Two Shoppers

Sluggish sales at major retailers paint a grim picture of an uneven economic recovery that has low- and moderate-income households reluctant to buy anything beyond the bare necessities. Three years out from the worst recession in generations, many Americans are still contending with unemployment or
In the media
Danielle Douglas

What Are the Risks of Social Impact Bonds?

How much should we trust private corporations to solve public problems? That’s the question cash-strapped state and local governments are asking as they experiment with private partnerships to fill the funding gaps that tax dollars can’t. From contracting out sanitation services, to privately-owned
Blog
Ilana Novick

Roll Your Own: The Entrepreneurial Alternative to College

We hear a lot that college "isn't for everybody," but this phrase is typically applied to working class kids—with the suggestion that we should expand opportunities to get vocational training that leads to solid blue-collar jobs. Of course, though, there are young people across the class spectrum
Blog
David Callahan

Big Crimes, Small Fish

The huge trading losses suffered by JP Morgan last year—and the cover-up of those losses—stand as just one example of that giant bank's long record of excess, criminality, and deception. And when you think of who should be held accountable for the London Whale fiasco, one name comes to mind. It's a
Blog
David Callahan