For the third consecutive year since the Great Recession, corporate profits soared in 2012. The FDIC report on fourth quarter 2012 bank earnings, released today, shows banks earning near-record highs. The headline numbers from the report are shocking.
Despite bans on the practice in 15 states, payday loan companies have thrived, finding a powerful ally in major banks like JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. That is the finding of the Pew Charitable Trusts in the second edition of their Payday Lending in Americaseries.
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, plenty of Americans have seen their credit scores tank. But can that really affect your ability to get a job? Yes, because employers increasingly are relying on workers' credit histories in screening applications.
In 2002, law professor David Yamata suggested that "[l]egal actions by a few bold individuals could trigger a more widespread awareness of the legal plight of student interns." Mistreated interns now have their own book-length expose' and are indeed suing employers in the fashion,
A new report from a Wisconsin state agency makes clear that Same Day Registration is not just a low-cost way to make voting more accessible. It can even be a budget-saver.
The report from the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board dealt a blow to advocates of repealing the state’s Same Day Registration policy. It pegged the cost of such a change as high as $14.5 million. Some of the costs are one-time expenditures, but many will be ongoing.
I am leaning in just a little as I write this. OK, I’m not. But I am feeling a little sick as I ponder the next unpleasant installment of the “mommy wars” that’s hurtling toward us.
Recently, a lot of attention was given to the prediction that the U.S. would become energy independent by 2035. Shale oil and gas driliing is the main reason U.S. energy production has increased and shale gas now accounts for 40 percent of all gas production.
Despite millennials' lingering reputation as financial delinquents, it turns out not everyone drowning in credit card debt has a newly-printed college diploma and a stack of student loan bills.
Same Day Registration is a proven reform that can substantially increase voter turnout among eligible voters -- particularly among those with traditionally lower rates of voter participation -- without compromising the integrity of elections or substantially increasing costs.
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Tuesday that next term it will hear McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, a challenge to limits on the amount of money that a single person may contribute to all federal candidates and parties over a two-year election cycle, known as aggregate contribution limits.
Any political movement that is going to succeed in America needs to be able to credibly promise that it can raise living standards for ordinary Americans. For the past forty years, this imperative didn't dog the right as much as it might have because non-material "wedge issues" proved so potent. As long as the culture war was going at full tilt, the right could keep separating working class voters from their more natural allies in the Democratic Party.
Also, parts of the conservative economic message -- especially about lower taxes -- sounded good to many people.
A new study looking at changes in wages and salaries, capital income, and in taxes found that capital gains and dividends made the largest contribution to income inequality. As the study states:
In a surprising move from one of the Affordable Care Act's staunchest opponents, Florida Governor Rick Scott has endorsed the Medicaid expansion component of the healthcare law-- at least for the next three years.
Tax reform may be moving to the front burner of Congress this year, if two powerful committee chairs get their way, according to Politico. Should this happen, get ready for a fierce battle over the charitable tax deduction, a large and obvious target for reformers looking for revenue. The Congressional Research Service has estimated that the U.S.
China's environmental tax policy is moving in an interesting direction. It was announced yesterday that a new set of tax polices focused on preservation, rather than use, will be introduced, including a tax on carbon dioxide emissions. While the specifics have not been released, the government intends to collect environmental protection taxes, instead of pollutant discharge fees. China is also looking at taxing energy-intensive products, such as batteries and private aircraft, and increasing coal taxes.
If tax reform goes forward this year, as some leaders in Congress hope, one thing is certain: It won't be an elegant exercise in representative democracy. Think more interest group feeding frenzy.
Harsh, an IT professional from Tuscola, Illinois, is 62, around the age at which a lot of people start actively planning to retire to a white-sandy beach with a frozen margarita in hand.
Harsh's debt snuck up on her as she helped her two daughters with college and living costs. She went back to school after a divorce and dealt with unexpected expenses such as big dental bills. Now she has about $300 a month in minimum payments, spread across three credit cards, and the balance never seems to go down because of all the interest she is paying.
If you consider yourself part of the middle class, you could be forgiven for not standing at the ready after President Obama called for you to be reignited.
