Media

The Daily Show last night had a great segment highlighting Detroit's ongoing water crisis. They point out that out of the $145 million dollars in delinquent water bills, nearly half is owed by commercial and municipal accounts, including the Joe Louis Arena, a local golf course, and an ice skating rink. People in Detroit pay much higher rates than the rest of the country, and continue to suffer from severe economic hardship, with 47% of mortgages still underwater at the end of 2013.

While Corinthian and its campuses may downsize or disappear completely, we should be concerned the students who attended its campuses and are currently in no man’s land.

Branko Milanovic is a World Bank economist and development specialist. He's currently a visiting presidential professor at CUNY's Graduate Center and a senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study Center. His book, The Haves and the Have-Nots: A Brief and Idiosyncratic History of Global Inequality, examines—as the title suggests—income inequality. Milanovic and Demos Research Assistant Sean McElwee recently discussed Milanovic's research and the major shifts within the inequality research field.

English writer Daniel Defoe famously said that only two things in this life are certain: death and taxes. After a dismally low turnout in the 2014 midterm elections, folks are considering adding voting to that list, but should we? And—for proponents of compulsory voting—what’s the fairest, most commonsense way to go about mandating the vote?

If the Federal Reserve were democratic, there’s no chance it would raise interest rates.

The Fed is nearing a decision on when to raise rates for the first time since 2008. But raising them now would be a disaster: the Fed would quash economic growth and keep wages and employment from rising.

Nearly half of the nation's employers investigate job applicants' credit histories as a condition of employment.

As a result, New Yorkers struggling with debt -- medical bills, school loans or car payments -- are often shut out of jobs. This unfair barrier to employment can be dismantled by outlawing employment credit checks.

Democratic Council Members Brad Lander of Brooklyn and Debi Rose of Staten Island have introduced a bill that would ban such checks in hiring except when required by state or federal laws. The measure is supported by 40 council members.

Because of the most obstructionist congress in history, President Obama has often been forced to turn to executive action to create any meaningful policy change.

In the wake of increasing voter identification requirements in Texas, analyzing voter turnout is becoming critically relevant to fully comprehend political outcomes.

It's been over a month since 18-year-old Vonderrit Myers, Jr. was killed by a St. Louis police officer. Details offered of the moments that led up to his death are today still sparse and sometimes conflicting. An investigation is underway, but there are already a few aspects of the incident that should raise questions.