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What the 99 percent is not: big oil companies that posted $10.3 billion in income last quarter.

Poverty in America is a national emergency. Last Wednesday the Department of Agriculture announced that 45 million Americans were participating in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. That’s 15 million more American adults than the 30 million who are currently estimated to be below the official poverty line. And today the Census Bureau is reporting that roughly 49 million Americans are impoverished—2.4 million more than the official estimate released in September.

It's one thing to agree that today's economy is only working for a sliver of households at the top; it is quite another to lay out a blueprint for changing that and creating truly shared prosperity. The growing gap between the Haves and everyone else is fanned by large-scale trends like globalization and technological change, and has been deepened and reinforced by a "winner-take-all politics" that favors the wealthy.

At a telephone news conference this Wednesday, three national policy organizations will release the results of a new nationwide, bi-partisan survey of young adults ages 18-34 about higher education’s importance and affordability, student debt, and Congressional proposals to cut Pell Grants or charge interest on federal student loans while borrowers are still in school.  

Population levels will continue to increase consumption levels don't have to.

Unlike his friend Warren Buffett, Bill Gates has generally not been outspoken about the need for higher taxes on the wealthy. While Gates's father, William Gates, Sr., famously campaigned to preserve the estate tax -- even writing a book with veteran activist Chuck Collins -- Gates himself has been reserved on this issue.

The citizens of Maine will be voting tomorrow whether to keep the same-day registration system that they’ve had for nearly four decades. Since 1973, Maine voters have been able to walk into a polling place or a municipal clerk’s office on Election Day and register to vote.

Contrary to the New York Times' estimates that poverty rates would dwindle with the release of the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), the Census Bureau is reporting that more than 49 million Americans are struggling to meet the costs of food, clothing, shelter, and utilities. Relative to the official measure, this includes an additional seven percent of the elderly, four percent fe

By virtually every measure, the fortunes of America’s young people are falling under a deluge of debt, shrinking opportunity, rising costs of living and lack of access to health care. Writing with members of the Young Invincibles think tank, the authors write: