Media

We have written a lot here at Demos about how the 401(k) system as been a total flop, leaving millions of Americans without enough money to retire. Holders of 401(k)s have gotten hit from nearly every direction: hurt by stock market meltdowns, ripped off by high administrative fees, and hurt by financial needs that lead them to withdraw money from their accounts.

The movement has drawn some support from financial circles. Wallace C. Turbeville, a former Goldman Sachs banker who now is a senior fellow at Demos, a public policy research organization in New York, submitted testimony last month for the Senate Banking Committee in favor of more banking regulation.

In its May 2012 Plastic Safety Net survey, research and advocacy company Demos surveyed 997 low- and middle-income American households that carried credit card debt for three months or more — and looked at how the recession and the Credit CARD Act of 2009 have affected American households.

REPORT: The Plastic Safety Net

The political heat had been building for months on the Obama administration to provide a solution, even if only partial, to the plight of young people who came to the U.S as children, and were raised as Americans but had little chance to make it in this country.

Defenders of unregulated capitalism argue that markets tend to police themselves, as bottom feeders and cheaters get punished by consumers who take their business elsewhere. But this assumes that consumers know they are being victimized in the first place, which often they don't.

Despite continual claims that renewable energy will never be able to replace fossil fuels, its development and expansion continues at an impressive pace. A new report shows that not only is global renewable energy production increasing, investment in renewables is also increasing. In 2010, renewable energy sources supplied nearly 17 percent of all global final energy consumption. Investment in renewables rose 17 percent to $257 billion, despite the debt crisis in Europe.

One of the main reason alternative indicators are important is that they take things that we value on a visceral level, like the environment, and put them into the universal language of capital.

By 2007, the top 1 percent of earners took home 35 percent of all income earned in New York state, according to a study done by Demos, a policy research firm based in New York City.

That compares with just 10 percent of all income for this group in 1980.

Steep declines in skilled manufacturing jobs and a huge uptick in shorter-term, lower-paying jobs.

The city of Philadelphia is facing a vacant land crisis.

Philly has more than 40,000 vacant properties, 10,000 of which are under the city's control, and 30,000 of which are owned by private landowners. Some 20,000 of these properties are long-term tax delinquent.