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From cutting-edge policy research to illuminating analysis, we bring a racial equity lens to the most pressing issues facing our country. For our latest blog posts and media updates, visit our Media page.

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A family smiling at each other in the foreground with a row of houses in the background and a bar chart behind them showing the racial wealth gap with white households
Policy Briefs
Demos
New Economy Project

Public Banks for Racial Equity

How stark racial disparities have long pervaded our financial services system, fueling and entrenching inequality, and why public banks are a transformative, equitable alternative.

Discrediting Workers: How Credit Reports are Distorting the Job Market, Prolonging Unemployment, and Denying Equal Opportunity to Workers

Economic insecurity has become the “new normal” in America. Ten million Americans are out of work, and the vast majority of Americans have seen their incomes stagnate or decline over the past decade. Demos’ extensive research on credit card debt among middle- and low-income households has found that
Research
Shawn Fremstad

Trends In Revenue And The Fiscal Condition

Left out of the debate about the U.S.
Research
Tamara Draut
Robert Hiltonsmith

Sick and In the Red: Medical Debt and Its Economic Impact

For many years, health care costs have been steadily rising. As employers have moved into insurance coverage options with greater out-of-pocket expenses or have stopped providing health care coverage altogether, American families have struggled with the burden of health care costs. 
Research
Jose Garcia
Mark Rukavina

Understanding the Federal Deficit and the National Debt

STABILIZING THE DEBT: SHORT, MEDIUM, AND LONG TERM POLICY
Research
Tamara Draut
Robert Hiltonsmith
Becky Theiss

The Investment Deficit

In the last thirty years, our nation has experienced a paradox of productivity and progress. Productivity, driven by extraordinary growth in technology and an increased push towards consumption, has nearly tripled. Meanwhile social, environmental, and educational progress has stalled.
Policy Briefs
Tamara Draut
Robert Hiltonsmith

Social Security: It's Built to Last

Social Security remains our nation’s key source of retirement income for most Americans. The program’s overall health is sound and with relatively modest tweaks to the program’s financing, we can strengthen the system for generations to come.

Policy Briefs
Tamara Draut
Robert Hiltonsmith

Committee on Government Operations and the Environment, DC

Testimony of Steven Carbo Roundtable of the Council of the District of Columbia, Committee on Government Operations and the Environment October 8, 2010
Testimony and Public Comment
Steven Carbó

Building North Carolina's Future Middle Class: Addressing the Challenges Facing Young Adults

Young adults in North Carolina and across the country are confronting an economic reality vastly different from that of their parent’s generation. Over the past three decades, economic opportunity and security for all but the most affluent and most highly educated has declined. Today, North Carolina

Policy Briefs
Lucy Mayo
Viany Orozco
Alexandra Forter Sirota
North Carolina Justice Center

Voting In 2010: Ten Swing States

In this report, we review a number of election laws and policies in 10 states chosen because they are expected to have close elections.

Research
Common Cause

The Color of Debt: Credit Card Debt by Race and Ethnicity

Recent federal action, including the passage of the Credit Card Bill of Rights of 2009 and the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, provided needed regulation and oversight of the credit card industry. However, past debt continues to haunt families even as they add on new debt. The
Policy Briefs
Jose Garcia