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Would Re-establish Key Provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act—Limiting Risk Taking by Commercial Banks, Requiring Investment and Insurance Spin-offs, Ending Era of 'Too Big to Fail'

As Congress Takes Up Sweeping Financial Reform, Report Urges Fundamental Change of Ratings Agency Model

Washington, DC — With the House of Representatives and a key Senate committee poised to vote on sweeping financial industry reforms, a new report by Demos finds that the proposed remedies fail to fully address the problems that led the credit rating agencies to become key enablers of the housing bubble and Wall Street meltdown.

Strong Consumer Financial Protection Agency Needed to Regulate Education Loan Products

Hundreds of Thousands of Low-Income Ohioans to Benefit

The auto dealer-loan industry's exemption from CFPA oversight leaves families vulnerable to widespread financial abuse.

Expanded Presence In Nation's Capital Will Strengthen Congressional And White House Policy Outreach, Host Public Events Series

Washington, D.C. — This week, Demos, a national, non-partisan public policy research and advocacy center, is pleased to announce two significant staffing changes:

Heather McGhee has been named Director of Demos' new Washington, D.C., office.

4 Million Middle Class Families Saw Economic Decline from 2000-2006; 23 Million Economically Insecure

10 years later, the end of Glass-Steagall has been blamed by some for many of the problems that led to last fall's financial crisis. While the majority of problems that occurred centered mostly on the pure-play investment banks like Lehman Brothers, the huge banks born out of the revocation of Glass-Steagall, especially Citigroup, and the insurance companies that were allowed to deal in securities, like the American International Group, would not have run into trouble had the law still been in place.

The result of all this has been that many of today's young people--again, especially the poor, those with less education and people of color--have a measurably harder road to travel than their generational elders, according to "The Economic State of Young America," a report published in spring 2008 by Demos, a New York-based research and advocacy organization. Between 1975 and 2005, for instance, the typical annual income for workers between the ages of 25 and 34 decreased across all educational brackets, with the exception of women with bachelor's degrees.