Media

A recent study by Demos, a public policy group, broke down the budget of a sample college graduate. With a monthly after-tax income of $2,058, $797 goes to rent and utilities, $456 to food and groceries, $464 to transportation, and $307 to school and card debt payments.

Senior Fellow Jennifer Wheary discusses how gaps in homeownership and equity levels are due to serious flaws in the opportunity infrastructure — namely lending practices that create barriers for African-Americans and Latinos who want to buy homes.

The HUD report says race-based discrimination makes up nearly 40 percent of housing complaints. Housing discrimination in any form is unacceptable. But continuing discrimination with regard to race could cost the country its future.

The report notes: "What distinguishes low- and middle-income households with relatively high levels of credit card debt from those with lower levels of debt is chance and misfortune."

"Elections are the backbone of democracy, and New Yorkers should be able to have faith that the people who run our elections are able to fairly and fully apply the law," said Scott Novakowski, program associate in the Democracy Program at Demos. "This report proves that voters are not only misinformed about their eligibility, they are subject to unnecessary, burdensome and illegal documentation requirements for voter registration.

The problem, according to all three books, is that for today's young adults, those lean early years -- the Top Ramen phase -- may never give way to the stability and prosperity enjoyed by their boomer parents. A number of factors are blamed, chief among them student loans, credit cards, wage stagnation, the rising costs of health care and home ownership, the disappearance of pensions and the likely collapse of Social Security under the weight of all those retiring boomers.

New York, NY — Many of New York's local boards of election are systematically and illegally preventing thousands of eligible New Yorkers from registering to vote, according to a new study released by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and Demos.

According to a riveting study by a pair of national not-for-profit, nonpartisan organizations, about one-third of all U.S. households categorized as low-income or middle-income are racking up credit card debt to pay for basic living expenses.

Michael Lipsky and Dianne Stewart, Senior Program Director and Director of Public Works at Demos, call for nonprofit groups to lead an effort restore widespread appreciation of the critical role of government as a protector of public values and as a place where Americans come together to solve our most pressing problems.

New York, NY — Today, Demos, a national, non-partisan public policy organization that studies economic security issues in the United States, announced the launch of the new Around the Kitchen Table online. Published at www.aroundthekitchentable.org, this monthly news journal offers commentary, analysis and fresh perspectives on how national economic trends in debt, assets, education and income play out around the kitchen tables of individuals and families in America.