Media

Forget those jumbo checks Sheldon Adelson wrote for Newt Gingrich in the GOP primary, or even the big money that Romney is pulling in now from wealthy bundlers. The most dramatic illustration of how private wealth is perverting elections can be found in Ohio, where Senator Sherrod Brown is being pummeled by inaccurate negative ads funded by conservative outside groups and super PACs.

Aaron Skirboll has a great article on Alternet that details the history of renewable energy policy and why we are unable to move away from fossil fuel. Skirboll’s article details how President Carter encouraged conservation and a move towards energy independence by, among other things, increasing solar funding from $75,000 in 1970 to $261 million in 1977.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.