Media

Last week, we highlighted how the outside money group, Jobs for New York, was dominating the New York City Council races. So, how did they do? Not too shabby—of the 20 candidates they supported, 16 won, two are still too close to call, and two candidates were unsuccessful.

The standard rap against regulation is that government uses a meat cleaver to clean up problems in the private sector that are better tackled with more nuance. 

Yet regulation—or the threat of it—often serves to spur smart self-regulation that wouldn't otherwise occur. You want to see a scalpel at work? Wave around a meat cleaver. 

A case in point is how banks are getting more serious about addressing consumer complaints now that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has created a database of complaints about banks and other financial institutions. 

After a marathon hearing that wrapped up in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the City Council of Richmond, Calif., voted to allow the use of eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages, becoming the first city in the nation to take such a concrete step toward the novel and risky strategy for helping people avoid foreclosure.

Mark October 8 on your calendar – that’s when the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that’s being called Citizens United 2.0.

In an earlier, harsher America it was not uncommon for people to work well into old age. In 1945, about half of Americans 65 and over were still in the labor force. And that was at a time when most work was physical in nature. 

Then came the great rise in postwar prosperity, with the spread of defined benefit pensions (often won by unions), the expansion of Social Security benefits, the creation of Medicare, and big leaps in housing wealth that provided nest eggs for retirement. 

Washington DC needs jobs. When D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray made this point at a press conference this week, he may not have realized he was making a strong case in favor of the Large Retailer Accountability Act.

There are a bunch of good, practical arguments for giving low-wage workers a pay hike -- like the fact that putting more money in the pockets of these workers would spur consumer demand and economic growth. 

But here's another strong point that you don't hear much about: Reducing wage inequality is crucial to meeting America's long-term fiscal challenges. 

I've written a lot lately about how this country has given up on school integration and left millions of kids of color concentrated in the nation's worst public schools with few white classmates. 

One of the groups who should be most worried about this resegregation are white Baby Boomers. Why? Because their retirement security partly depends on the fiscal solvency of Social Security and Medicare—a solvency, in turn, that will hinge on a strong and productive workforce in coming decades.