Media

J. Mijin Cha, a senior policy analyst for Demos — a New York City based good government group — and principle author of the report titled "Fresh Start: The Impact of Public Campaign Financing in Connecticut," alongside former Connecticut Secretary of State Miles Rapoport and current Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill, cited significant changes in Connecticut's legislative process since publicly financed campaigns and encourages New York state to pass similar legislation.

To retirees, the offers can sound like the answer to every money worry: convert tomorrow’s pension checks into today’s hard cash.

Bet if I asked, the odds are good that many people could tell me to the penny what they just paid for a gallon of gas.

So how much did it cost you to invest in your 401(k) last year? I don't know myself. And you likely don't know either.

Over the years, most of us have heard that if we just start saving a few hundred dollars a month in our 20s, we can retire a millionaire. Compound interest is your best friend.

But what about the fees in a 401(k)?

A new report from Mayor Bloomberg's Office of Economic Opportunity shows that parts of New York City are nearly as economically stratified as anywhere in the world. 

The fast food conglomerate Yum! Brands is one of the largest private employers in the United States, with nearly some half million workers, most of whom make near poverty-level wages. Which is why some workers at Yum! restaurants -- which include Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut -- joined a strike this week in Chicago.

The interaction of economics research and ideological politics has once again brought to the forefront the blurring of advocacy and academic integrity that has become so prevalent since the financial crisis. Harvard economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff published research in 2010 that has been used widely to assert that austerity is needed for economies that are both in a recession and carry a debt to GDP ratio that exceeds 90%.

I watched the disturbing Frontline documentary on PBS,The Retirement Gamble, and not surprisingly, I got to thinking about the fees I pay for investing in my retirement accounts.

On a normal day, Sonia Acuña, a petite 41-year old mother of four, puts on her bright red McDonald’s cap and reports to work at a branch of the giant hamburger chain in Chicago’s main rail terminal, Union Station. But today, in cold and drizzling early morning weather, Acuña—still wearing her McDonald’s hat—was out on the street in front of the terminal, striking.

Think of predatory lending and you probably think of pawn shops and check cashing stores in run down strip malls in poor neighborhoods. 

Time to expand your thinking—like, say, to include the fancy office tower in downtown San Francisco that houses Wells Fargo's headquarters. Wells Fargo is one of a handful of banks that offer Checking Account Advances, which can carry eye-popping interest rates.